Master this Technology.

2008-12-06T01:00:00.002-05:00

Christ, haven't written anything here in a while. Had a few drinks and feeling rather sassy so I thought I'd post something.

I work at this "engineering compound", as a friend calls it. It's way up in the mountains of Colorado. It's a beautiful place. The job is weird though. Sometimes the euphemism "sinking ship" comes to mind. Sometimes I get all excited about "transformational change". Who knows.

How'd I get here? Dunno. I get this question whenever I meet someone new. The partial answer is simple - a woman. The rest is something I'm still figuring out. It was certainly time for a change. I'm not going to be a software engineer anymore. The idea is to do good, right? To make this place we live in better for my kids and their kids, I think. I'm pretty sure I've finally embarked on the beginning of that path, but it's a long, winding road. Where? How? I'm really not sure.

But this is good. A long, winding road means we've caught it at the beginning. The opportunities are everywhere. A revolution is at hand. It will run much deeper and last much longer than the dot com bullshit. (And there's "synergy" there too, but I'm not telling how to capitalize on that).

Anyway, I'm questioning what I'm doing here. They try so hard and everyone has the right ideals. But, financially we fail. There is a lack of leadership and there is a lack of overall goals and a greater strategy. I think that will be remedied soon and then perhaps we can succeed. But still I question if this is the right place for me. So much thinking and not enough doing. We need action.

Most recently I've had to take on the webmaster duties - a monkey's job. And I can't tell anyone that I've been promoted. A Strange Place. I should have free time. Currently I use it to work on the chief scientist's efficient home. I'm learning quite a bit there. As long as there are additional duties where I can continue to LEARN - then all is well. The outdoor environment is of course excellent. That also helps.

Recently I ran into my old bosses. Scott immediately questioned my plan to go back to school a year or so down the road. He asked, "Why? You're on the front lines". Excellent. I didn't think about it this way. We are on the front lines. This is the new future. I will stick around and see what happens. I will learn as much as I can here. I can't be discouraged with my current, "official" job.

"The rocky road to Dublin, 1-2-3-4-5".

The snows are coming. Visit.

2007-11-01T16:01:00.000-04:00

So Tuesday the 30th we arrived in the eastern Sicilian town of Taormina. It’s right on the coast and quite lovely. However, on our way in the rental car to Taormina we made a day stop at Mount Etna. Etna is a sprawling, smoky mass that tops out at about 3300m. You drive up on switchbacks from the south for about 30 minutes to a place called Rifugio Sapienza. Don’t be fooled though, it’s not a little hut - it’s basically a basecamp for tourists. We parked there (1 euro) and then took the ancient gondola (25 euros) to 2500m. From here (for an additional 25 euros) you can take a 4x4 up another 500m or so to the Italian Alpine Club’s guide hut where you can hire a guide for another undisclosed sum of euros to reach the summit craters. I hiked from the top of the gondola to the guide’s hut. I strayed off the 4x4 path to cut off a bunch of switchbacks as we were in a tight spot for time. I almost passed out once from either over exertion or getting stuck in a gas pocket, I’m not sure and it was kind of scary. Anyway, I made it up to almost 3000m (just past the guide’s hut) and decided to turn around – it was getting late, I was the only one up there, and I was afraid of hitting more gas pockets. However, I did take some great photos of the smoky summit cones. I then came down and we made our way to Taormina.

Some photos of Etna and my time so far in Taormina:

Etna from far away during our driving approach.

Hiking to the guide’s hut. It was a total dusty volcanic wasteland. Now I know what Mount Doom was like.

This was shortly before hitting the gas pocket. Me with Etna in the background.

The wind picked up once I got up there and became quite chilly. You can see how much steam this thing produces.

A house buried in volcanic crap on the drive down.

A view of the Ionian from my hotel porch in Taormina.

Looking down on Taormina from the castle summit above. You can just make out the Greek/Roman theater on the far right.

Lots of trash washes up on the beaches – this was a particularly interesting piece.

It’s hard to see but there were probably 10 bolted sport routes on these overhanging rocks right on the beach. I wish I had my climbing stuff. They even had (French/Italian) ratings painted below each route. I did a little bouldering, but I wasn’t very successful in bare feet.

2007-10-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

Well, I haven't posted here in a few days because internet has been spotty. Last time I posted I had arrived in Basel, Switzerland and had reached the end of my bike journey. From there I took the train to Milan where I spent two nights. The difference between Milan and the French, German, and Dutch cities to the north is incredible. Milan is dirty, disorganized, and generally falling apart. It was not a safe place to bike and the hostel was abominable (although I did, for the first time in a hostel, meet some cool people who I will keep in touch with). The Duomo there is pretty cool, but that's all I really enjoyed. You couldn't walk more than 10 feet without having to worry about being run over by a tram, car, scooter, motorcycle, streetsweeper, etc. Also, the Italians are not engineers and this is most apparent in the big cities. Compared to the German and Swiss cities, the infrastructure was laughable. It was really just a chaotic jumble. Anyway, I couldn't care less if I never make it to Milan again.

I gladly left Milan on a train bound for Lake Maggiore last Tuesday (the 23rd) and met up with my uncle in the small town of Verbania. I was certainly happy to meet up with a member of the family and someone that I knew. We spent three days relaxing at the feet of the pre-Alps and enjoying the Italian lake district. Unfortunately the weather was overcast and rainy and didn't get out on my bike at all. However, we did take a cable car up to Il Mottarone (around 5000ft) and hiked down from there. There were some great views between the clouds and we saw an ancient church tower that's supposed to have been built around 1000AD.

From Verbania we took the train and then a taxi to the Milan-Malpensa airport where we flew down to Sicily. We stayed one night in downtown Palermo and now we're staying at a very nice resort just outside the downtown. Palermo is just as dirty and crazy as Milan. There are trash, broken bottles, and spraypaint everywhere. Everything is in a state of decay (especially the limestone mountains) from the acid rain. However, the food is great and the people are friendly.

Two days ago I went for a bike ride up Monte Pelligrino which was a 2500ft ascent over about 6 miles and yesterday we drove our rental car to the southern coastal town of Agrigento which had some spectacular Greek ruins. In fact, we saw the largest Doric temple in the world there. Today I'm going to head out for another ride to try and find the beaches and climb the nearby Monte Gallo.

Here are some pics from the last week or so:

Milan's Duomo. I believe it's the second largest Gothic cathedral in the world.

The marble quarry near Verbania. I believe it provided much of the marble for the Duomo in Milan.

The gardens of Villa Tarantano near Verbania.

The Pre-Alps from Il Mottarone.

That's me on top of Monte Pellegrino. The place is supposed to be sacred as it's dedicated to the saint who supposedly saved Palermo from the plague. You can see how sacred the locals think it is.

A view of Palermo through the smog from Monte Pellegrino. Our hotel is right down there in that bay.

An extremely intricately detailed cathedral in a place called Monreale outside of Palermo. The light wasn't too great inside, but it was amazing nevertheless.

And, finally, the largest Doric temple in the world. I believe it's called the Temple of Concordia. The place was littered with trash and the information was only in Italian so it was hard to grasp the historical perspective, but it's pretty amazing that it's still together. The stuff was mostly built between the 6th and 5th centuries BCE.

2007-10-20T16:43:00.001-04:00

Saturday (Freiburg->Basel, Switzerland), 50mi

I've successfully reached my final destination. It was freezing (literally) when I got started, but it turned into the perfect day to finish my trip. The wind was at my back and the sky was clear and sunny.

The first thing I did this morning was go to the local bike shop to acquire a spoke nipple. The guy had one there and I found a sunny parking lot to repair my rear wheel in. It looks like the nipple had been broken for a day or two and only last night did the spoke pop out of the hole. Anyway, I replaced the spoke and the wheel was back to normal. I then hit the road and made for Switzerland.

Not a whole lot exciting happened that I can think of. Because the wind was coming from behind I cruised faster than most days. I also was probably about 10lbs lighter due to the stuff I sent back home yesterday. This part of the Rhine seems to be just a river which was nice - no factories and no barges. It was shallow and noisy, but still just as wide. Eventually I came to Basel which is a beautiful city. I found the hostel and secured a bed pronto. I wanted to celebrate tonight but couldn't find the right establishment. Perhaps in Milan...

Well, after just over 700 miles in the saddle I must say that it was really fun. I'm not sure what the next trip will be, but maybe the Nile?

The route and the interactive route.

The broken nipple next to its spoke. The head was sheared right off and I later found it sitting in the spoke hole on the rim.

Here I am trying to show how cold it is with my breath. You can't really see, but it was damn cold. Everything was covered in frost!

Repairing the wheel in the parking lot of an Aldi Sud. I got some weird looks.

Saying goodbye to the vineyards of the Black Forest.

Lunch on the Rhine.

Infiltrating the Swiss border. At least they actually have border guards - not that they do anything. I just walked my bike through.

Basel, Switzerland!

2007-10-20T11:19:00.001-04:00

Just arrived in Basel, Switzerland. Below is my blog for yesterday. I'm going to be hungry after this so I'll probably go check out the town and then come back later to do the blog for today. Enjoy.

Friday (Breisach->Freiburg), 20mi

Today I made the short journey to Freiburg. It was an easy trip, but it was freezing and my left knee is hurting pretty badly. First it was the right and that seems to have fixed itself, but now it’s the left. I just have one long trip left to Basel, Switzerland tomorrow though and then I can rest.

Anyway, I got to Freiburg and checked into the only hostel that had any room left. It’s about 3km outside of town, but not too far. I headed back in to town with a load of stuff to send home, grabbed a quick Nordsee fish sandwich, and headed to the post office. It only ended up costing 13.00 euros for a 3kg package back to the states. Not bad. I then wandered around to have a look at the city. Freiburg is an ancient town and has been capital of the southern end of the Black Forest forever. It has this bizarre system of mini canals that was originally used for refuse disposal and apparently they still work today. The little canals run right down the middle of all the main streets and people toss in cigarette butts and other small bits of garbage. I’m not really sure where they go. Then I happened on an indoor market called the Markethalle where I bought a noodle dinner and perused the goods. Then I ate another Nordsee fish sandwich. After that I made for the "Rick Steve's" recommended microbrewery (Brauerihaus Freierling), drank many delicious brews (2.5 liters to be exact), and witnessed a hysterical "rock'n'roll" band called "Soundedge". I very stealthily took a single picture as I left – hopefully it came out so the hilarity can be witnessed by all.

Then I ate a yufka donner and came back to the hostel. On the way back I broke a spoke nipple while riding along. I’ve never seen this before. Oh well, hopefully the local bike shop will have a nipple so I can repair my wheel. Otherwise I’ll be riding with 31 of 32 spokes, no big deal. Hahaha.

Currently I’m sitting in the basement of the youth hostel writing this. There’s no internet so I’m not sure when it will post. There are many drunken Germans here having a great time. Germans are so funny.

The route and the interactive route.

Cold, misty morning on the Rhine.

The Freiburg cathedral which took something like 300 years to complete. Notice everyone's favorite architectural feature - the flying buttress.

There used to be a large castle around the Black Forest hills above Freiburg. Naturally the castle was destroyed, but the Germans built this weird metal/wood tower that had a great view.

A view from the tower of Freiburg and the cathedral below.

And there I am on the tower with the Black Forest behind.

A typical street in Freiburg.

Aahh, the "Soundedge" photo. It's a bit dark, but there's no way I was going to use the flash. It's hard to tell, but the band members were Howie Mandell on the squeezebox, Bill Clinton on the acoustic guitar and vocals, Les Claypool's lesser-talented brother on the bass, and Charles Bronson on lead guitar.

2007-10-19T03:23:00.001-04:00

Finished the post below and updated the commentary. Check it.

2007-10-18T12:36:00.001-04:00

Thursday (Strasbourg, France->Breisach-am-Rhein, Germany), 50mi

Well, I've found an internet connection just down the road from the hostel I'm staying in. So I'm sitting on the Rhine, watching the sun go down and writing this blog. Not bad.

I woke this morning and got right out to take in a bit more of Strasbourg. It really is a lovely city. I was a little worried when I first came in because I got lost in the industrial section, but the old part of the town is pretty cool. I took a bunch of pictures...

Today was a little shorter, but the quality of the route did improve. There were some more hills and quaint little towns and not so much heavy industry. The weather was generally overcast and there were a few rain squalls, but I didn't have to put on the wet weather gear. Also, there wasn't any wind today which was really nice.

I spent the first half of the day following the Rhone-Rhine Canal - that's why my path looks so straight on the map. It was nice, but eventually got a little boring. After going over a major hydroelectric dam I was back in Germany following the Rhine and the Grande Canal d'Alsace. I ventured through some old ruins and eventually made it to Breisach. I got one of the "leader" rooms in the hostel which means it has only one other bed and its own bathroom. It's also insulated from the zillions of kids that are running around. Anyway, I went out and ate a currywurst and then had a big plate of donner.

I could make Basel tomorrow, but then my tour would be over. I think I'm going to take a quick jaunt east to the town of Freiburg which supposed to be really nice. I'll spend the night there and then make for Basel on Saturday. Sunday or Monday I'll take a train from Basel to Milan and then meet up with Charles in Verbania on Tuesday.

The evidence...

The route and the interactive route.

Looking out of the hostel window in Strasbourg.

The old cathedral in Strasbourg.

The "Petit France" part of Strasbourg.

The bike path along the Rhone-Rhine Canal. Not too bad...

Alone along the Grande Canal d'Alsace. It was very peaceful today.

The difficult passage back into Germany. Man those border guards are tough.

Eating lunch and waiting out a rain squall.

The Lindburg ruins. Unfortunately all the posted historical info was in French or German so I really couldn't tell ya the significance. I think it was a Benedictine monastery at one point. However, no tourists and no entrance fee. I had it all to myself.

"King of the castle. King of the castle."

The medieval town of Breisach as I arrived.

2007-10-17T12:41:00.003-04:00

Wednesday (Karlsruhe->Strasbourg, France), 65mi

I'm actually sitting at a desk with wireless internet typing this! This is probably the nicest hostel I've ever been in. It's right in downtown Strasbourg (Ciarus - http://www.ciarus.com). It was just starting to drizzle a bit (I think my luck is up with the nice weather) and I was getting frustrated because I couldn't find the place, and then a sign for it appeared. I'm pretty excited it's so nice because last night I was stuck in a boiling hot room with two Turkish men, one of whom snored really loudly. I didn't sleep much, so this empty, clean room is much appreciated.

Today was another long one at 65 miles. I had a head wind most of the day which really sucked. It was mostly overcast and I could definitely see the front moving in. Luckily it never rained on me because that would make things miserable. I think tomorrow will be partly cloudy, but no rain. We shall see.

Not a whole lot to report otherwise. It was sort of a boring slog through small towns and long the canals. Strasbourg is certainly the most exciting thing of the day. Tomorrow I'll probably take some pictures as it's already getting dark here. The only other news (that you may have guessed) is that I've been biking in France all day! I passed over in just the first 15km or so of the journey. Here's the evidence:

The route and the interactive route.

Another ferried river crossing. These are pretty fun...

Hunh-hunh-hunh. I have infiltrated zee heavily-guardED French borDER.

The last of the sunny weather...

I had a little crash on this slippery granite curb. Not a big deal, but one of the trailer hitches popped off. The lady in the house behind the bike came out, gave me a dirty look, and then closed the brown gates to her driveway in my face. Screw you too!

A nice shot of some of the bike path through a park outside Strasbourg.

2007-10-16T13:51:00.001-04:00

Tuesday (Mannhiem->Karlsruhe), 60mi

Well, it's 8pm here and I'm sitting in a square somewhere in Karlsruhe. It's a pretty big town with a nice palace and tons of shops (if you like that sort of thing - the Europeans certainly do). I barely have a signal so I might not be able to upload pictures, but we'll see.

Today's ride was not so exciting as the terrain has gotten pretty flat again and I was mostly in the woods without being able to see the Rhein. However, I did get lost once and ended up in a farmer's field (again) for a while. The weather was great though. I really have been lucky.

I stopped in a pretty cool town called Speyer which had a nice old section. There was massive cathedral that looks like it was recently rebuilt with all the old sections of a previous cathedral that had been destroyed. There are some pics below.

Seeing as I don't have much to report, I guess I'll talk about the bike. So far, it's been great. The dérailleur hanger got a bit bent on the plane ride over so I had to adjust the dérailleur, but it works fine now. Also, the largest front chainring got busted on the flight over so it's a bit bent. However, I've only used the gear once and it was way too scary with the trailer, so no matter. Umm, that's about it for today. Although, I must say that it is getting difficult not being able to have a conversation with anyone (the Germans barely speak any English, unlike the Dutch).

Pictures:

The route. Interactive.

Another ferry crossing today...

Inside the Speyer cathedral. The largest Romanesque church in the world.

Outside the Speyer cathedral.

There I am out in front.

The Rhein at last...

Lunchtime in Worth-am-Rheins.

The palace at Karlsruhe.

2007-10-16T03:28:00.001-04:00

Right across from the hostel is the "International" Mannhiem-Heidelberg Film Festival. Of course they have an internet connection for all those fancy, Mac-loving artists...

Monday (Mainz->Mannheim), 65mi
I couldn’t find any free internet in Mannheim so I’m writing this Tuesday morning and will hopefully post it later today.

Monday was much longer than it should have been. I got lost in the morning when I went to chase down a ruined castle I saw from a distance. I probably added a good 20km to the journey. It should have only been a 75km day, but it turned into another 100km+ day. The weather was great again though, despite it being a bit chilly in the morning.

As soon as I got out of Mainz I found myself in the German wine country with the vineyards crawling up along the hills away from the Rhein. At one point I think I was setting off those automatic shotguns that scare off the birds (no bullets of course). It took some time to figure out why there were loud bangs wherever I rode my bike through the vineyard.

The rest of the day was not as exciting and I ran into some more industry and the terrain flattened out again. I did cross through the town of Worms (where the Treaty of Worms was signed) and was hoping it would be a cool, medieval place. But, unfortunately, there was lots of construction and most of it had been destroyed during WWII, so there wasn’t a whole lot to see. I didn’t take too many pictures through the rest of the day. The town of Ludwigshafen, which is right across the Rhein from Mannheim, is the home base of the chemical company BASF. You can imagine what arriving in Ludwigshafen would look like. (In fact, you can because I took a picture of it). I then crossed the bridge into Mannheim and eventually located the youth hostel, ate a pile of pad thai and a donner yufka, and then hit the sack.

One strange thing that I have noticed so far traveling through Germany is that there are very few young people. There seem to be lots of children of age 16 and younger and then people over, say, 45. I have no idea where everyone in between is. The only places I have seen people my age appear to be in the university towns (like Bonn and Mannheim) and the very large towns (like Dusseldorf and Cologne). Also, there are hordes and hordes of geriatrics wandering around aimlessly, especially on the weekends. They come on their tour buses and then slowly wander directly into my path staring up at the sky. Again and again and again. I need a cow catcher that self deploys when it senses adults wearing diapers. Anyway, Germany is full of old people.

The day’s pictures:

The route. Interactive.

Another great day along the Rhien.

Riding through the vineyards.

The castle tower that got me lost. At least there wasn't anyone else there and entrance was free.

A view out one of the windows into the wine country (near the town of Nierstein).

Every cyclist's worst nightmare - a glass recycling facility. There was broken glass everywhere. It's hard to tell, but there were piles all along the road and bits all over the place. Although...I can't imagine a more satisfying job than smashing things made out of glass all day.

The statue of Martin Luther, etc. in Worms. Here is where he was questioned and stuck to his guns. This is also where he apparently spoke the famous lines during the Diet of Worms, "Here I stand. There is nothing that can be done. May god help me. Amen."

The beautiful view of Ludwigshafen's BASF horizon. I'm sure they've done wonderful things for the Rhein.

2007-10-15T03:11:00.001-04:00

I'm back in that square in Mainz with the random wireless signal to post this before I take off for the day. I'm freezing my ass off, but it looks like it'll be another gorgeous day once the sun warms things up.

Sunday (Koblenz->Mainz), 65mi
Again, no internet connection so hopefully I’ll post this tomorrow.

Today was another long day, but the weather was great with not a cloud in the sky. It was a bit cold in morning, but this didn’t bother me as I had a new riding friend! He was a crazy German on a recumbent that I had met in the hotel we stayed in. We ate breakfast together and conversed in broken Germenglish. He was probably 50, lived in the country outside Koln, and despised working. He didn’t own a car and, as far as I could tell, spent all his time riding around Germany on a recumbent. Anyway, he accompanied me 25km to the south to the town of Boppart where he departed for the mountains. I didn’t feel comfortable asking him for picture and he had mirrors so I couldn’t take a picture from the back like I did of the carpenter crack man. Oh well. From there I rode mostly along the Rhine past cliffs, castles, and quaint medieval towns. So far, this has probably been the best part of the Rhine.

I arrived in Mainz around 5pm and spent some time in the main square posting the previous day’s blog. At that point I was starving so I found the hostel, showered, and headed out for something to eat. I ate a massive plate of donner kebab but was still quite hungry so I came back here and devoured a whole chocolate bar. Looks like I’ll have to go shopping again tomorrow.

The last bit of news is that I’ve finished my first guidebook (Rotterdam to Mainz). Hooray! The guidebook said it was about 405mi, my total mileage was about 395mi. Next, I start on Mainz to Basel (Switzerland). It should only take me five (long) days so I’m running ahead of schedule. I think I might stay an extra night in Strasbourg (especially if it’s raining, as it may be in the middle of the week). It’s supposed to be a nice town. Tomorrow I make for Mannheim or Ludwigshafen. They’re both across the Rhine from each other so I have to decide which to stay in.

PS. Holy shit, I just left my wallet at the kebab place in town. Luckily the guy saw it and put it behind the counter. I had to ride all the way back to town. That was scary.

Pictures:

The route. Google Maps.

A beautiful morning on the Rhein.

A castle with town below.

An old tollhouse in the middle of the river.

Having lunch about 30km from Mainz.

An old building in Mainz.

2007-10-14T11:05:00.002-04:00

I've just arrived in Mainz and found a random wireless signal. Here is the post from last night (I might be able to do today's if there's wireless near the hostel - I haven't arrived there yet):

Saturday (Bonn->Koblenz), 50mi
I don’t have an internet connection now, so I’m not sure when this will post. Anyway, I woke up today in Bonn with the sun streaming in my hotel window. I rode my bike around Bonn and snapped a few pictures and also went lunch shopping (meat, cheese, chocolate – meat is a new addition as my lunches up until today consisted of Chocolate and Cheese). I hit the road with partly sunny skies and as the day wore on it became totally sunny. A beautiful day of riding. I also seem to have left the heavy industry behind with the lowlands. The towns along the Rhine today were very nice and hills have started to rise up along the sides of the river, reminding me a bit of New England.

I arrived at my destination in Koblenz around 4 or 5 and attempted to locate the youth hostel. The guidebook showed it right across the river from Koblenz near the fortress way up on the cliff. It took some to figure out that the hostel is *in* the fortress on the cliff. Well, cliff fortresses are always designed to be difficult to get to. I wasn’t too thrilled. So I made my way up there and got lost several times. I had to walk the bike plus trailer in several sections because it was so steep. Eventually I made to the fort, paid the entrance fee, and proceeded to the hostel. The parking lot was totally full and I knew I shouldn’t even bother to go inside because it was clearly completely booked. I went inside anyway and, yep, it was completely booked. So, I made the exciting descent back down and found a 28 euro a night hotel at the bottom of the cliff. There I ate dinner and had a few beers and then turned in for the night.

The pictorial:

The route. Interactive.

A view out my hotel window into the streets of Bonn.

The statue of Beethoven in Bonn. This was his home town afterall.

Me and the bike on the Rhein.

The famous bombed out bridge at Remagen. It allowed American passage to Germany during WWII and it took the Nazis several attempts to destroy it.

A fairytale castle along the Rhein.

Lunch at an ancient tollhouse and WWI memorial in Andernach.

The Koblenz Nazi fortress (Ehrenbreitstein - originally built by the Prussians) where the booked youth hostel was located.

2007-10-12T13:44:00.000-04:00

Aah. I am finally all up-to-date with the blog. Hopefully I can stay up-to-date because this just took two hours at 8 euros per hour. I can believe I just paid for wireless internet!

2007-10-12T13:33:00.001-04:00

Friday (Dusseldorf->Bonn), 65mi
Another long day and crummy weather. Low morale today due to the weather and the industrial views of the Rhine (called the "unromantic" part of the Rhine in a guidebook I have). However, now that I’ve arrived here in Bonn, I feel much better. Bonn is a nice old town with a few ancient squares and a big university. I’m going to investigate it more tomorrow.

Anyway, I was going to stop in Koln (Cologne) for the night, but it was a big commercial city and wasn’t very interesting except for the largest Gothic cathedral in Germany. I ran inside and snapped a few photos. Some of them came out strange though – I think my camera might be on its last legs. Not much else to report.

Here are the photos:

The route. Interactive.

A street near where I stayed in Dusseldorf.

German engineering at its best. A bridge that floats when it floods!

I passed through Leverkusen which I think is the headquarters of Bayer.

Cheee-eeese. Sadly, I finished my last snack here in Leverkusen. The delicious Dutch Kloosterkaas.

The giant Koln cathedral from outside, across the river. It was huge.

2007-10-12T13:13:00.001-04:00

Thursday (Xanten->Dusseldorf), 60mi
So, I’m starting to hit the populated, industrial part of the Rhine. I was going to stay in a place called Duisburg but it was pretty dirty, so I pressed on to Dusseldorf. The day started so misty I could barely see, but it cleared up and became a beautiful day. I mostly followed the Rhine, got lost in some farmer’s fields, and even made a friend for a little bit of the journey. I passed through one very nice river town called Kaiserswerth and took a couple of pictures there. Kaiserswerth had some more ruins of Barbarossa that I was pretty excited about. Again, no buried traayysure.

The route. Interactive.

A misty start.

My Heeed on the Rhine.

Crossing a farmer's fence.

Kaiserswerth path (with flood marker).

Up close of the flood marker.

More of Barbarossa's ruins.

My biking friend. He had shaved head except for one clump on the left side that you can sort of see. He also has a sweet plumber's crack.

2007-10-12T13:12:00.001-04:00

A quick post on the Dutch. Now that I’ve left the Netherlands and entered Germany, I want to write a quick piece about the Dutch and travelling in the Netherlands. I would first like to say that it was a pleasure. I’d admittedly never thought about travelling in the Netherlands until this bike trip. But now I will definitely think about going back (besides, I didn’t even get to spend a night in Amsterdam). The Dutch are generally friendly to tourists, most of the Dutch understand and speak English well, and they are excellent business people. The Netherlands are clean, they have good weather (as far as I can tell), the transportation systems are efficient and well-signed, and, because their money comes from their successful financial businesses, you don’t feel like everyone is trying to gip you as a tourist (whereas in Greece, where tourism is the number one industry, I felt like everyone was trying to sell me a crappy product or service). Anyway, it was a pleasurable experience all around and I would recommend a visit to anyone (especially a cyclist – that’s what the country is made for).

2007-10-12T12:12:00.002-04:00

Wednesday (Nijmegen->Xanten, GER), 50mi
I woke up in Nijmegen, had a quick breakfast, and wrote a blog or two. I then wanted to check out a few more places in town before I headed for Germany. The most important of these was, of course, Barbarossa’s ruins (unfortunately this was not the pirate Barbarossa, but I pretended). He built a castle in 1155 on the ruins of Charlemagne’s castle. Unfortunately the county sold the castle for building material in the late 1700’s and all that remains are the two churches at either end of the castle.

Eventually I left the Netherlands behind, turning away from the Rhine (Waal as it was in the Netherlands), and entered the rolling farms of northeastern Germany. It was probably the best riding day so far - it was sunny all day and just slightly warmer than the previous days (mid to high 60s maybe). However, I was barely able to infiltrate the German defenses as they had a very tight security perimeter at the border (kidding). I actually didn’t know when I crossed the border, but there was a point with a few boundary marker stones where the signs turned from Dutch to German. Anyway, getting away from the dikes of the Netherlands and into the German countryside was a pleasant change as I was getting tired of grinding away in the exact gear for miles and miles at a time. Also, the Germans have not prepared their bikepaths for me as nicely as the Dutch did. I've now hit packed sand, dirt and even some gravelly sections, whereas in the Netherlands it was always nicely paved or tiled. But the change is welcome.

I passed through the picturesque towns of Kleve and Kalkar and eventually found myself along the Xantener Nordsee (a lake) and was then suddenly in Xanten. It was a little over 40 miles in all and I felt a little bit more tired than the previous journey because of the more hilly German terrain. Apparently, the town of Xanten has just discovered that it was a Roman settlement thousands of years ago after a farmer dug up a bunch of golden Roman coins. They're excavating all over the place and they have an outdoor archaeological museum that shows the Roman excavations. They also have a new huge museum dedicated to the Roman history set to open in April next year. The town itself has a pretty, ancient square with a huge church and ancient walls and entrances. I'm staying at the local youth hostel which is mile or two outside of town, but it's only 20 euros and as clean as a hospital. Although the last place was new and clean, it was 50 euros, and the place before that (Hotel Tivoli), well, let’s just say it wasn’t worth the 45 euros I paid. The youth hostel room has room for four or five to sleep, but I’ve got it to myself and it has its own bathroom. I swear it’s never been used.

Some pics from the journey to Xanten:

The route. Interactive.

Nijmegen old town in the morning.

Avast! BARRRRbarossa's ruins! Alas, no buried traayysure, only some refuse left by the local rabble.

I think this was the Dutch-German border. It was a very difficult crossing.

Finally, some dirt paths.

Typical bike path signage.

There I am outside Xanten!

My final installment of how to burn down your hotel (I finally got the plug adapter).

2007-10-11T12:24:00.001-04:00

Just got to Düsseldorf. I wrote some blogs last night (didn't have internet to post). Here's one about the trip from Zaltbommel to Nijmegen:

Tuesday (Zaltbommel->Nijmegen), 40mi
I had no internet in Xanten, so this is coming to you from Düsseldorf. Tuesday I rode from Zaltbommel to Nijmegen. It was around 40 miles over dikes (dijks) and along canals in the Dutch countryside. The weather was overcast and bit cooler, but it didn't rain. I passed through several small towns but nothing really eventful happened except when my bikepath was blogged by a herd of sheep. I would've tried to pick my way through but they looked rather surly and they had already covered the path in excrement. The detour didn't add that much time. Eventually I arrived at the industrial outskirts of Nijmegen. Here, I believe, is one of the many massive pump stations that help control the water level in the canals. There was also a pretty serious set of locks that were moving barges up and down the river.

Once I made it into downtown Nijmegen I immediately made my way to the Velorama Museum. Apparently, it's the largest historical bicycle museum in the world. It was three floors of bikes, starting from the very earliest wheeled, hobbyhorse designs to the hi-wheel (hi bis), penny-farthing disasters to modern recumbents and folding bicycles. As an interesting aside, the very first exhibit was a life-like manikin of Leonardo da Vinci standing beside a fully wooden bike with a chained drivetrain. From what I could understand from the attendant’s broken English, some lost documents of da Vinci’s had been discovered by monks that suggest he invented the chained drivetrain hundreds of years before they became popular. The story is unlikely and it is thought the documents are forgeries, but until it is proven one way or the other, the curator is leaving the sculpture up. Anyway, it was awesome and I took a zillion pictures. However, from the very beginning I noticed that an awful lot of emphasis was placed on the French bicycle designers and manufacturers throughout the told history. I had the feeling that the curator was probably a Frenchman. My worst fears were affirmed when I came to the very top floor and entered "the black box". It was a small raised room that had a motion sensor activated World War II bicycle diorama within, complete with life size human models in the appropriate garb and machine gun sound effects. This was all fine and well, but there was a little button with a French flag that I couldn't help to press. Well, some sort of French victory music started blasting and a new room lit up with a bunch of French wartime relics. It was hysterical. They may have helped to move the bicycle from the rich person's toy to the working man's vehicle, but they did not win the second World War! Haha.

Anyway, I then wandered around to check out historical Nijmegen. I guess it was originally settled by the Romans (and probably before) so there's quite a bit of history there. I found a place to stay right near the old square, had a Maoz falafel for dinner, a few beers at a place called Funkenstein, and then turned in for the night.

Here's a pictorial of the Zaltbommel to Nijmegen leg:

Tuesday's leg. Interactive map.

Path blocked by sheep.

Locks near Nijmegen.

Bully!

The first rollerskates. Looks safe.

The retrodirect. That's for Jimbo.

And, finally, a second lesson in how to burn down your hotel.

2007-10-10T02:25:00.001-04:00

Ok, here are the promised pictures from the first leg from The Hague to Zaltbommel. I'll do the pictures for yesterday and today when I get to Xanten. Time to ride.

Here's the route from Monday 10/08). Google Maps interactive map.

All set to go from Craig's.

Waiting for a drawbridge over one of the canals.

The medieval town of Dordrecht.

I had to take a ferry to cross a river to get to Werkendam.

Another windmill. They were used for both milling grain and also pumping water from holding ponds to canals and vice versa.

My lovely hotel room in Zaltbommel.

And how to do the ghetto plug conversion. In my defense, the live wires were already just hanging out of the wall.

2007-10-08T14:56:00.001-04:00

Another gorgeous day in Nederland. Today was the first leg of the actual tour. I rode 70 miles from The Hague to Zaltbommel. It went pretty well although I did get turned around in a couple of the larger cities. For the most it's really easy to follow the roads as things are signed very well and often time their are separate signed bikepaths (fietspad) where no cars are allowed. Unfortunately I left my mini-USB cable in the Hague so no new pictures today. I'll upload some tomorrow when I get a new cable in town. However, I do have interactive routes of where I went biking back near the coast on Friday and Saturday.

Tonight I'm staying in the luxorious Hotel Tivoli. Pictures tomorrow to show its beauty, but, to give you an idea, I had to go to a Chinese restaurant to check-in.

This was Friday's ride around the Hague. Interactive Google map here.

And this was Saturday's ride with Craig around the Hague. Interactive Google map here.

2007-10-07T17:54:00.000-04:00

Today was another beautiful day in Holland. Craig and I took the train up to Amsterdam and spent the day on a Mike's Bike Tour. Our guide (Sean) was super knowledgeable and I learned a great deal about the Netherlands. For example, did you know that that both gin (from England) and vodka (from Russia) were derived from a Dutch spirit called genever? Or, did you know that the reason the Dutch apartments are so tall and skinny is because the Dutch used to be taxed on only the square footage of a building's footprint? Anyway, we saw a bunch of Amsterdam, including the canals, the Amstel river, a 300 year old windmill, a clog and cheese factory, and a banana-hammocked 60-something man doing hanging gymnastics from a rope in the middle of a plaza (I decided no to take any pictures as I don't want to blind you readers). Here are the pictures of the day...

Craig on the bike tour. I'll do a post dedicated to just biking around here as it really is something special.

Your average Amsterdam street. Can you see the beams and hooks at the top of every building's eave? They use those for hoisting furniture up into the incredibly skinny apartments.

Here's our bike tour group in front of the old windmill along the Amstel. Craig and I are on the left.

This is an ancient sign post reminding the merchants who use to come into Amsterdam up the Amstel to go straight to the city center to be taxed on their goods.

The third apartment down all the way on the left is famous for holding John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their "bed-in". We were even able to read Lennon's writing on the window ("Hair Peace Bed Peace"). Click here for a higher resolution where you too may be able to make out the writing.

One of the few outdoor Van Gogh pieces. This resides in the inner-city's Vondelpark.

Here's one of Amsterdam's many buildings that's sinking into the silt the city is built on. Some interesting wood framing keeps this building from sinking even deeper.

Finally, one of Amsterdam's public urinals along one of the canals. Napolean installed these during his brief rule of Amsterdam because he thought it was disgusting that people kept urinating into the canals. Craig and I performed a field test. They worked well but smelled pretty awful.

2007-10-06T22:20:00.000-04:00

Craig and I went to the bars. We went to a place where there were copious euro-mullets. Craig touched one. Here is a picture of a euro-mullet in its natural environment:

2007-10-06T13:57:00.001-04:00

The weather was once again spectacular. It was bright and sunny and in the 60's. Perfect. We started the day off by getting the delicious uitsmijter breakfast. It's ham and eggs and cheese over warm, fresh bread. Then we wandered around the city looking for a useful bike store where I purchased some fenders and giant bike map holder. My bike is looking more and more like the Bianchenstien we all know it is.

Craig and I then took our bikes up to the town of Scheveningen where the North Sea beaches are. (Apparently, the Dutch used the word "Scheveningen" during World War II to tell if a German spy was posing as a Dutchman - only those born and raised in teh Netherlands can properly pronounce it. I would most certainly fail the test.) It's really quite beautiful although I'm pretty sure the water is freezing. We rode along the beach and then through the vegetated dunes near Wassenaar and then back to the Hague. It was around 20 miles. Hopefully I'll be able to upload and display the GPS track of these bike trips, but that will be for later.

Now for some of the days photos:

Craig's apartment is the white building, right across from...

the Dutch Parliament.

Bicycling in the dunes.

Again, the glorious Dutch Parliament which you can ride your bike through...

And, the picturesque American Embassy. A little overkill, no?

2007-10-05T19:30:00.000-04:00

So I arrived in Amsterdam today. The flight was pretty uneventful although I did sit next to a very talkative Indian man who thought that Barack Obama would not make a good president because 90% of America's prisons are black (the actual figure is closer to 50%). Anyway, I arrived here around 7:30AM and took the train to The Hague. I discovered pretty quickly that a 50lb bike bag on one shoulder and 45lb duffle on the other is rather uncomfortable. Rather than taking the trams to Craig's place I just made a 10 minute bike ride from the station. It was pretty easy.

We said hello and Craig took off for work. I then showered and took a much-needed nap (said Indian man didn't seem to mind talking to someone who was "asleep"). I then went for a ride for a few hours to check out the city. It's an interesting place and very flat which makes for great riding. It's also about 7 feet above sea level which makes for great danger of slipping off the road into a dike (dijk). I got lost in the dunes to the north of the city and barely found my bike before dark. Came back, showered, and went for dinner with Craig. Certainly a nice welcome and it's not even raining!

Tomorrow I'll take more pictures of the area, but here are two choice pics from today:

Bike all packed up and ready to ride to Craig's from the train station.

Yep, Lookout!

2007-10-02T18:19:00.001-04:00

The proposed route - Interactive Google Map. This is more or less what the route would be if you were driving, but I will be following the Rhine so it will be a little different. However, I will be stopping in each of those towns for the night.

Something like: Rotterdam, Netherlands->Zaltbommel->Nijmegen->Xanten, Germany->Duisburg->Dusseldorf->Cologne->
Bonn/Bad Honnef->Koblenz->Mainz->Worms->Karlsruhe->Strasbourg, France->Breisach->Basel, Switzerland. It should be around 600 miles in all.

After this I'm meeting my uncle north of Milan for a couple of weeks in Italy (including Sicily).

2007-09-30T17:12:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted here in ages, but I'm going on a bit of a bike tour and I'm going to use the blog for updates on my trip. I will be starting near Rotterdam (in the Netherlands) and then following the Rhine through Germany and France all the way to Basel, Switzerland. After that I'll be spending some time in Italy with my uncle. Stay tuned for updates.

2005-12-05T21:04:00.000-05:00

My life is so boring I haven't had anything to report. No, that's not true, just been real busy. It's getting near the Holidays and there's lots of parties and travelling, etc. Finally, I have a spare moment to sit down and do a little writing. There are two things in my recent memory that stand out.

The first is the Ansel Adams exhibit at the MFA. Aleana and I went last week - it was awesome. There must have been 200 photos or so from the very beginning of his career to the very end. I've always known Adams for his spectacular photos of the Rockies, but they had a bunch of beautiful closeups he did as well. You know that picture of an open rose on a piece of wood you see on everyone's computer background? Yep, Adams. They also had a couple of super rare pieces where he made huge photograps (like 5 feet by 8 feet) and fixed them to those folding Japanese dressing partitions. Aleana summed it up best with a comment about how each photo looks like he waited for just the right second to pull the trigger. It's really quite impressive - check it out.

The second event was our (Seth, Tom, Mike and myself) first hash with the Boston Hash Hound Harriers. It's a very strange "sport" that was invented by British (naturally) ex-pats in Malayasia. The group gathers at a local bar (in this case at about 2:30 on Sunday) and has a few beers. At some point the "hares" leave and then everyone else, the "hounds", set off after them about 10 minutes later. The hares leave a trail on the ground using chalk and flour markings trying to throw off the hounds. The finish is about 2-4 miles later at another local bar. It's great because you get to do a bunch of running and you get to drink some beers. There's always at least one "checkpoint" half way through where the hares leave a bunch of beers as well. This particular hash took place all around Brookline, starting at the Publick House and ending up somewhere near BC. It was great. There's lots of singing and shouting and weird hash jargon. I think we'll be attending next weekend as well. Just about every city has a hash group - just google for "hash" and your city.

Words of the Day

boudoir - a lady’s bedroom or private sitting room
gibe - an aggressive remark directed at a person intended to have a telling effect, to be compatible
verboten - excluded from use or mention: forbidden, taboo
hegemony - the predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others
effulgence - the quality of being bright and sending out rays of light: radiance

2005-10-04T16:42:00.000-04:00

I went to my first Critical Mass bike ride last Friday (they occur the last Friday of every month in Boston). It was definitely one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. I started with a crowd of 250 people or so around 6PM in Copley Square and rode a full two hours. According to Tom, it went on even longer than that.

Basically, we rode all over downtown Boston entirely taking the streets over so that no cars could pass. It's sort of a protest that attempts to make drivers aware of the fact that the bicycle is a viable option for city driving. I think it also helps to make drivers more aware of bicyclists in general which many times they are not. Boston drivers are just terrible and careless. But that's another rant entirely.

Anyway, I have no idea exactly where we went but it was really everywhere downtown and then up to Cambridge. It's totally disorganized which makes it even better. The decisions as to where to go are made on the fly by the people in the front and no one person organizes the gathering. It just sort of happens and then the crowd dissipates into the alleys after a few hours. The best part was being able to leisurely ride through downtown Boston and take the time to admire the buildings and city environment. Normally this isn't possible because you're in a car trying to avoid the maniacs or you're rushing around with the crowds on the sidewalk. The John Hancock building is really cool piece of architecture!

The international site is http://www.critical-mass.org and the Boston site is http://www.bostoncriticalmass.org. Definitely try it out even once. It's a real experience.

Words of the Day
atelier - a studio for an artist
scrivener - someone employed to make written copies of documents: scribe
boff - to have sex with
aquiline - curbed down like an eagle’s beak: hooked
evince - give expression to: express, show

2005-09-21T17:19:00.000-04:00

In the past few weeks I have seen three very different concerts. Here are my reviews.

Rolling Stones. 08/26/2005. Hartford, CT.
This was the first big media concert I've been to in years. To tell you the truth, I didn't miss it at all. The parking was atrocious and the throngs of people were intimidating. It was played at the new open air Rentschler field in East Hartford. This is UCONN's new football stadium. Rentschler field is Pratt and Whitneys old airplane testing strip and, as we arrived a little late, we ended up being directed to park at the very end of the strip. When Aleana and I got out of the car the stadium was about the size of a dime on the horizon. We literally had to walk through two miles of drunken miscreants to get to the stadium. But that is where the molestation ended, almost. I say "almost" because once we filed inside and took our seats those Maroon 5 crybabies sauntered out on stage. Mick, bad choice. Anyway, the Stones eventually came on after displaying a painful video introduction on their big screen above the stage. Lots of fire and pomp and they took the stage with aggression. Mick ran around like a man possessed the entire time. It really was quite incredible for his age. Keith "Koffin" Richards had both his feet in the grave but somehow kept his nose out of the tomb for the entire concert. We were on the floor with pretty good seats. They looked strangely like marienettes from the distance. Sort of like stick figures. About halfway through the concert they all got on this platform in the middle of the stage and it started moving out into the crowd. It travelled along a pier in the crowd which no one had really noticed and stopped at the end right next to us. There they were. The biggest rock'n'roll band in the world about 10 feet away. My mother almost had an aneurism. All I can say is that they looked ancient. They were all skin and bones and ligaments. Naturally, Koffin looked the worst. He gave his guitar pick to the oldest most bedraggled lady around us. It was really kind of funny. They certainly weren't the Rolling Stones I thought of from all those magazine covers and MTV videos. Either way it was pretty cool.

The music was good, at least as good as massive stadium sound can get. I guess it was really just loud. However, there was lots of background noise. It most certainly was not just Mick, Kieth, Wood, and Watts. I guess you need to do this for an ailing 60s band. They even let Koffin have the mic a few times and it was anything but intelligable. Koffin also played some of his songs off the new album. These were not the sort of songs people will remember. At least I can say I saw the Rolling Stones. They will probably start expiring by the end of the tour. I'm just glad we saw them at the second concert before they got all tuckered out.

Apocalyptica. 09/15/2005. Boston.
Now this is something to appreciate. To start, it was at the tiny Paradise near BC which is a great venue to see bands up close. Apocalyptica is like Beethoven plus Rammstein. They are four cellists and one drummer. And they only play metal. And they're all Germans. And they only play metal. The opening band was some screaming death metal band from California but it was too loud to bare as I had forgotten ear plugs. Anyway, Apocalyptica started off with a Metallica cover that had the place rocking immediately. And they continued like this for most of the concert. They did a couple of slower ballads but it was only cellos and a drum which had a rather primal effect. They also had distortion they could turn on and off for their cellos to make them sound like electric guitars. They also controlled the volume of the cellos to make one stand out more than another (as Aleana pointed out, being a seasoned cellist herself). Besides some fat guy that occassionally started moshing around, the concert was entirely enjoyable. I haven't seen a band that put on such a rocking unique concert since Reverend Glasseye. Be sure to check them out if they're ever around your area.

The Proclaimers. 09/16/2005. Boston.
Yet another personal show at the Paradise. I remember seeing the video for "1000 Miles" years ago on MTV and really enjoying it. I had since forgotten about the Proclaimers but when I was looking for Apocalyptica tickets I saw they were playing the following night. So I decided to see them as well.

The opener was a drag. Some weird slow country with only a guitar, a keyboard, and a drummer. They left and on came the two twins and the rest of the band with enthusiasm. We soon noticed that the bar at the back was filling with green jersies. Glasgow Celts jersies to be exact. So eventually there were a bunch of wasted Scotsmen running around. They seemed to know all the words and individually drank more Bud bottles than KP himself ever could. The Proclaimers played fast and slow songs and, to everyone's delight, even "1000 miles". A man in a kilt danced around on stage until he was thrown out and the Scotsmen chanted Celts cheers between songs. It was all quite silly and a pretty good time.

Words of the Day
pathos - a quality that arouses emotions
flunkey - a male servant: lackey
genuflect - bend at the knees and bow (as in church)
purloin - make off with belongings of others: pilfer, cabbage
virulent - extremely poisonous or injurious: deadly, acerbic

2005-08-23T21:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I wasn't able to blog every Sunday since the last post. I honestly forgot.

Anyway, we (Seth, Tom, Mike and myself) did go to NH to climb. We didn't really plan for a place to stay and slept in the cars Friday night. We were on the rock by 9 Saturday morning at the Upper Left (Barber) Wall of Cathedral. The routes there are rated as 5.8s and 5.9s but that may have been many years ago when the granite wasn't so polished. Those were hard 5.8s and 5.9s. We climbed there with a bunch of Russians until 3 or so and then had a snack, swim, and nap on the banks of the dreaded Saco. We searched out a place for some food in North Conway and then headed back to Cathedral around 8PM. We were up on Thin Air (5.6) by 10PM and climbed the first two pitches until 1AM or so by moonlight. It was a pretty cool experience. We then slept out on top of Cathedral.

Sunday we headed down to Rumney for some sport climbing. We spent the whole day at the Bonzai wall. It's a crazy sharp overhang with marbley-looking rock. Again, alot of fun, although we were hopelessly tired. Mike completed the famed Peer Pressure with style.

Besides some other climbing adventures I can only think of a few things that happened between then and now. My Trek hardtail was stolen. This was as severe blow. My parents bought it for my birthday nearly ten years ago and I've ridden it ever since. It's been on asphalt, snow, dirt, ice, and water with me and easily had hundreds of miles on it. I hope it turns up again. The good news is that I don't have that empty feeling I got when my first Honda scooter disappeared. I feel like it's still nearby and I might find it yet.

Oh speaking of scooters, the Sunday before last I got nailed at an intersection right near my apartment. It had just rained so the roads were slick. I was approaching the intersection of Western Ave and Harvard St from the north. I saw a small shitbox coming from the opposite direction with this blinker on intending to make a right (from my perspective) in front of me onto Western Ave. He clearly saw me - there was a brief moment of eye contact - but then he suddenly decided to "step on it". Well it didn't move very fast...but I was, about 25mph fast. I locked up the brakes and laid it down and smashed into the passender side rear quarter panel. Somehow I escaped with nothing more than a scrape and bruise on my leg. He just took off without stopping. License plate number "96E A22". Please shit in his car for me. The only damage was that he smashed up my front fender which can be epoxied back together. Hopefully.

Words of the Day
tenebrous - dark and gloomy
florid - elaborately or excessively ornamented: showy
eugenics - the study of methods of improving genetic qualities by selective breeding
panjandrum - an important and influential person
orotund - ostentatiously lofty in style, full and rich

2005-07-20T23:14:00.000-04:00

Man it's been a long time. I'm so incredibly busy with so many things. I think it's just the summer that sucks your time away. I live in Boston now. I now work for a very small engineering company. It's eons beyond what I was doing before. I've been doing lots of climbing and not enough biking. This weekend we might head up to Rumney. We'll see what happens. I think on Sundays I'm going to try force myself to find some time to write out a good long blog. That's all I got for now. Too much has happened to possibly relay in this quick late night entry. G'night.

Words of the Day
neurasthenia - nervous breakdown
wog - offensive british slang used to refer to people of color
cloy - supply or feed to overabundance (of something desirable), to cause surfeit
brocade - thick heavy material with a raised pattern
lurid - horrible in fierceness or savagery: shocking

2005-05-27T09:44:00.000-04:00

Website is back up on "fast" connection. Sorta new address: http://dumbbox.dyndns.org:81.

2005-03-31T10:37:00.000-05:00

I quit!!! Hahahahahahahahahahaha. I start my new job outside Boston on April 25th. Check out Mobile-Mind.

Words of the Day
neurasthenia - nervous breakdown
wog - offensive british slang used to refer to people of color
cloy - supply or feed to overabundance (of something desirable), to cause surfeit
brocade - thick heavy material with a raised pattern
lurid - horrible in fierceness or savagery: shocking

2005-03-16T17:17:00.000-05:00

I'm bored so I'm writing again.

The last two things of note I recall are a weekend in NYC and then several days in San Francisco. New York was quite a debacle. I saw Corey and Diane and Jen and some other RPI dorks. We rode in this crazy pimp taxi and the driver was smoking an enormous blunt. His name was Al. We went to a place called the Dark Room and it was really dark. It had sort of a neo-punk clientele and I am olfactorily certain that there were several who didn't think it was cool to shower. We ended up closing a bar nearby called the Piano where I did two heaping shots of Jagger at 4:30AM with a dude that claimed to be a professional skateboarder. He said Bam Margera is a huge pussy. I was hungover for a few days and caught a cold at the same time.

The following Thursday I headed to San Francisco with two friends from work, Beibhinn and Aleana. We stayed in Oakland at Aleana's sister's place. The weather was glorious and we kept ourselves very busy. We spent Friday climbing at Pinnacles (I couldn't get up the 5.11a or 5.11b that we attempted). It has made me extremely excited for the warm weather here so I can start climbing outside. That night we saw some a weird asian transvestite show at a place called Asia SF and then stayed out late. We ended up at a dingy place called Ediniburgh Castle that reportedly is Irvine Welsh's current hang out. There were readings by him on CD for sale that he recently had recorded there. No Irvine sightings though.

Saturday we did the tourist thing as Beibhinn had never been to SF. We saw the Goldan Gate Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf and some other classics. We then met up with some friends of Aleana's and partied the night away after a delicious meal at a serious Italian place. It was like that SNL skit. I think we went to a place called the Red Dragon and danced with alot of Asians.

Sunday we hiked around Marin County in the Tamalpais state park and Muir woods. We saw the giant redwoods which were pretty spectacular, picnicked on Muir Beach, and had a beer at the Pelican Inn. John Muir was a Scottish geographer that all these places were named after. He was repsonsible for making sure that whole area (and lots of other current state parks) were protected from logging and general destruction. It's funny how it often takes a foreigner to realize how lucky we are here. That evening we went to one of my cousin's for a cookout and cocktails. It was great to see everybody.

Monday we were exhausted and spent the day travelling home. It was an awesome time. Pics on the dummbox soon.

Words of the Day
dacoit - a member of an armed gang of robbers
pernicious - exceedingly harmful: baneful, deadly
amphora - an ancient jar with two handles and a narrow neck
languid - lacking spirit or liveliness: lackadaisical
torpid - slow and apathetic: inert, dormant

2005-02-23T16:53:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was again spent at Mt Snow. Saturday I skinned up to the summit from the base which took a good hour and a half. It definitely is the most efficient way to travel on snow. However, coming down I was a disaster. The 198s were way too long and they didn't have any sidecut. Sad to say I think I've forgotten how to ski on straight longboards. Oh well, they're a thing of the past.

This weekend will probably be spent at Tuckerman's. I'm still keeping an eye on the avalanche advisory though. They've had 57 inches in the last week or so. There will definitely be plenty of snow. An artic front is moving in and the winds are high so its going to be cold and there's lots of loading on the leeward slopes. Today's advisory is "High" for most of the bowl. That would mean no skiing today. I don't think we'll go unless it's "Moderate" to "Low". Way too dangerous.

These blogs are getting boring but I have a few potential adventures coming up that will hopefully yield some good stories. Tuckerman's is certainly one of them. The first weekend in March I'll hopefully be going down to NYC for a friend's b-day party from college. New York is always an adventure. San Francisco is also just around the corner and I'm beginning to look forward to that more and more for a handful of reasons. And, finally, in the beginning of April I'll be heading to Greece to see my brother who is there abroad. Good stories no doubt.

Words of the Day
banal - obvious and dull: trivial, trite
protean - taking on different forms
syllogism - a deductive scheme of formal argument consisting of a major and minor premise and a conclusion
inexorable - not to be placated or appeased by entreaty: relentless, adamant
reprove - to scold or correct (with kindly intent)

2005-02-17T16:01:00.000-05:00

Bored. Boring. BorRED. Lalalala. Let's see...I went to Okemo last weekend for some skiing and other general stupidity. Beautiful weather, beautiful snow. WAY too many people. The AT skis didn't fit in the Porsche so I was forced to do liftserve all weekend. Oh well.

I was randomly convinced by some coworkers to go to San Francisco for a few days in the beginning of March. Hopefully I'll see the other side of the family. They're pretty cool. Tickets weren't too much and California is always a good time.

I'm going to Mt Snow again this weekend and will definitely be bringing the AT skis. I have no desire to deal with the crowds. There will be like 7-9 people staying in Kevin's condo so it'll be a real tight and most certainly an adventure. I'll be sleeping on the floor no doubt.

There is no flow to this blog entry.

I guess the bloggers have been stirring up some trouble. Peggy Noonan wrote an article and it's showed up on prestigious TV shows such as the Daily Show. The mass media is getting all pissy because bloggers can do whatever they want and people are starting to turn to them for news. It's excellent. Big media outlets suck. I like to think people read my blog too. At least that's what I tell myself when I spend time writing these entries.

Words of the Day
inflection - change in the form of a word to indicate a change in its grammatical function
simulacrum - an insubstantial or vague semblance: effigy
autodidact - one who is self-taught
inchoate [in-'kO-&t, 'in-k&-"wAt] - only partly in existence, imperfectly formed
reproach - a mild rebuke or criticism

2005-02-09T11:51:00.000-05:00

More skiing at Mt Snow last weekend. It's starting to get ridiculous though. Too many skiers and too many assholes from New York. I'm done with it. Actually, one more time President's Weekend but I probably won't do any liftserve skiing.

Jimmy and I mounted up some Swiss Military issue Fritschi alpine touring bindings to an old pair of Atomics I had. They're 198s so a little long for touring but it will be fun to get used to the weirdo bindings. Basically the heel is free like with telemark bindings but it pivots at the front of the boot rather than at the ball of the foot. So you can skin up with a free heel, but then lock in on the way down. My alpine race boots are way too stiff for efficient skinning so I'll probably just practice the downhill this weekend. It looks like we're getting dumped on this week so there should be plenty of snow.

So Okemo this weekend. Mt Snow the following. And hopefully Tuckerman's the weekend following that.

Words of the Day
pullulate - to be teeming or abuzz: swarm, sprout
ubiquitous - being present everywhere at once: omnipresent
physiognomy - the human face: countenance, visage
posterity - all of the offspring of a given progenitor: descendants
lugubrious - excessively mournful

2005-02-04T11:44:00.000-05:00

Fear. There's this lady at work who is afraid. Afraid of cars and terrorists. Afraid for her children. Afraid of work and me. Afraid for her life. I couldn't figure out what her problem was but this is the conclusion I've come to. You can smell the fear. You can practically see it when she's in the room. She's from the midwest. She has this wavering voice and a nervous laugh that comes out in clipped spurts between every few words. Her "favorite book" is the bible. You have to be very cautious when you approach her. If you come too close and she doesn't see you she will practically faint from the surprise. She's divorced. She has a backwater twang that amplifies the fear in her voice. You know who she supports in politics. She turns on the TV news every night to see how many have died in Iraq and the current tsunami death toll. She knows the exact shade of the terror alert meter. She comes home every day and all her fears are affirmed. She will continue to be afraid. Afraid of things that are not there. Afraid of things that are merely heresay or propaganda. The afraid are the easiest to oppress.

I just saw that new documentary on Howard Zinn. He's about dead unfortunately. He and Chomsky are the last great progressive author-activists of our time. Perhaps that is what got me thinking about the fear thing. That lady will never escape her enclosure of fear. To look outside her enclosure is too frightening. Since she cannot look outside, she cannot escape. Much like the ouroboros.

Words of the Day
placable - easily calmed or pacified
vamoose - to leave hurriedly
opine - to speak one’s opinion without fear or hesitation
copulate - make love
macabre [m&-'käb; -'kä-br&, -b&r; -'käbr&] – shockingly repellent, inspiring horror: grisly

2005-01-24T14:25:00.000-05:00

Haven't posted anything in a while. I've been having some car trouble and that's been keeping me kind of busy. The wheel on the Jeep fell off the other day. Once at night and we fixed it and then again the following day as I was pulling into work. The rolling tire almost nailed one of the managers. That would've been great. I've since pulled the hubs and have been trying to press the lugs out so I can replace them. Due to some design flaw or just old age the lugs have mushroomed just above the knurl and have become stuck in the hubs. I've had to cut them all off, drill them out, and then use a chamfer bit to cut away the mushroom. It's time-consuming to say the least. Hopefully I can get the stupid thing back together this week. It's been kinda cold riding my bike to work.

Skiing this weekend was great. About a foot of snow fell Saturday night and Sunday we got up for an unbelievable day. Not too crowded and plenty of fresh powder. Hucking was the name of the game as falling did not result in the severe trauma that it normally does on the boilerplate. It will be cold all this week and the slopes should be excellent next weekend with all the new snow groomed in.

Next book will probably be "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins (www.johnperkins.org). Check it out.

Words of the Day
quiddity - an evasion of the point of argument by raising irrelevant distinctions; the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other
repudiate - cast off or disown: refuse, renounce
sibilance - a hissing sound
ghazal - a kind of Oriental lyric, usually erotic
saturnine - bitter or scornful: glum, sullen

2005-01-05T15:47:00.000-05:00

I just want to point out some excellent new music. It's ass-kicking, 70s rock revial Bad Wizard. Check out there album "Free and Easy". It's 28 minutes of meth-induced, Foghat-inspired, AC/DC-rad rock. It's pretty cool. Here's a snippit from a review I found:

As dynamite monster boogie shows go, you’d have to be in some biker metal Valhalla, or at least the wilds of Sweden, to find a more audacious slice of riff rawk pie than Bad Wizard’s 2001 debut, "Free and Easy", an album packed wall to wall with sex-drenched outlaw anthems juiced up to city block torching volume with nary a buzz-killing dip into pussyville in sight. It’s like some long forgotten mid 70’s 8 track that explodes when you press play, a wild mutation that’s equal parts Motorhead, Cactus, and whatever the Symbonese Liberation Army’s house band sounded like. The Wizard are flag wavers of an elite freak force of far flung Super Rockers- bands like Boston’s own Cracktorch, Detroit’s Lanternjack, Hamburg Fucking Germany’s Nixon Now-that are sloughing off the ‘stoner’ tag affixed to every greasy heavy rock band these days, and cracking open the pre- Sabbath vaults of volume for an even purer extract of rockage. Not stoned, these cats, but drunk- on gas fumes, on napalm, on power and Pabst Blue Ribbon, but most importantly, on lethal doses of holy fucking rock and roll. There is some master plan in all this, I’m sure, and I mean to discover it. But first, I think we need to address the band’s Hobbit-baiting moniker...

Words of the Day
philistinism - a desire for wealth and material possessions with little interest in ethical or spiritual matters
rubicund - inclined to a healthy reddish color associated with outdoor life: ruddy
anathematize - curse or declare to be evil: execrate
tannoy - a loudspeaker
henna - reddish brown dye used especially on hair

2005-01-04T14:24:00.000-05:00

Where to start. The holiday season is always an interesting one and I haven't posted anything since several days before Christmas. I can't possibly remember all that has passed, so just some quick words on the Holidays.

Christmas was great. The whole family was back together. We had the classic Hyde Family Christmas party on Christmas Eve and all the regulars showed. The Skull showed up with Wife of Skull and Daughter of Skull but neglected to bring the little hellion he's bourn. I avoided Wife of Skull who I don't think I'll ever speak to again after the woody wagon incident. She's a terrible bitch. The Kvam/Curtiss family was there as well the Schutzers and the Hoens and some of their extended family. At some point there was a particularly interesting conversation about the origin of the word "turnpike". It was eventually decided that "in the old days" when approaching a rotary at a main intersection there was actually a large wheel with a pike or two attached to it. There was also a large man who demanded a toll. If you paid, he would spin the pike and you could pass, if you tried to make a break for it you'd probably end up being harpooned by the pike. So, you see, the absolutely ridiculous origin of the word "turnpike". Pictures are on the dummbox of the whole ordeal. Even pictures of Mr. Hoen's brother was looks just like Roger Moore.

My uncle showed up for a second Christmas a few days later and that, naturally, involved a great deal of red wine. We also discussed possible employment opportunities with his new employer, SAS.

Some time passed and I think it involved going to work, but more memorable was seeing old friends. An old roommate of mine from the fraternity stopped in for a night. He currently lives and works in Washington state and I haven't seen him for two years or more. We went out to a local watering hole where I ran into a bunch of other folks from high school and before. It was really quite glorious for a weeknight.

Then it was time for New Years. Champa and I decided to head up to Montreal Thursday night where we would stay at Oliver's place down by the canal. I decided to put the 911 to the ultimate test by driving it up there and back again (700+ miles). It performed flawlessly. Not a hiccup. I evaded certain arrest at least twice. I don't know how. That car is way too fast.

Anyway we eventally got to Montreal and met up with Oliver, Annie, the Pone, and Pone's girlfriend Charlenne (sp?). Then Champa, Oliver and I headed to the Lizard's in a small town on the Richelieu southeast of Montreal. We partied there for the night and then headed back to Montreal the following day. Everyone immediately got back in bed and I was left as the sole motivator and organizer for New Year's Eve. Kaitlyn and her friend Miriam eventually showed up later in the evening. Excellent.

We all went out for dinner at the Spirit Lounge. I've never been to any place like this. Let's see, where to start...The place was strangely decorated with low-hanging drapes, umbrellas and tin foil...lots of tin foil. It was also very dark and made up of many small rooms with only a few tables. We were put in the back in the one big room. There was a large trap door on the floor that would move when you stepped on it. There were two hot lesbians eating dinner at a table nearby. They performed a very passionate kiss that was Hollywood-worthy. There were no menus, in fact, there was only one meal they were serving. It was vegetarian. I hope you don't mind vegetarian. If you didn't finish your main course you would be charged an extra two dollars. You had to use the bread served to wipe up any remaining sauces or leftovers on the plates. The plates had to be clean. If you ordered desert and then didn't finish you would be asked not to come back...ever. One of the waiters looked like Legolas from the Lord of the Rings movie and we would all feign shooting arrows whenever he walked by. It was an interesting experience. I think I took a picture of myself urinating in the bathroom.

Anyway we were going to go an 80s type party for the night but ended up going to l'SAT (La Société des Arts et Technologiques). They had some pretty good DJs from Germany and some cool video. The place is also a non-profit so it cost only $35 Canadian (which is actually almost as much as American money these days) to get in. Oh yeah, when I ordered a gin and tonic, it was about half and half and they used Bombay Sapphire. This was only $5.50 Canadian. Pretty damn good. I enjoyed these for the rest of the night. It took a while to realize it but most of the guys there were gay...or really European. (The suspiciously full stalls in the bathroom and suspiciously empty urinals gave this away). But this was fine because most of the girls were not gay or they were at least bi. I was approached on several occasions by girls looking for straight guys so it worked out pretty well for me, to say the least.

We eventually headed back to Oliver's apartment where we found a belligerently shitfaced Pone who eventually vomited and went to bed. We partied some more and discovered in Oliver's most drunken and ritalin engrossed state he walks around like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. Yes, the hunched back and forearms straight out with wiggling fingers. It's really quite strange. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. Eventually all went to bed.

New Year's day everything was closed and we spent most of the day inside...recovering. Oliver, Liz, Kaitlyn, Miriam and I went out for dinner to Le Taj. It was delicious Indian food although the man behind the glass kept a menacing eye on us while constantly brandishing his 3 foot skewer. No one knows what he does, but if you fuck up he will certainly turn you into a tasty Indian delicacy. We then went back to Oliver's for some more drinks and fun.

The following day I woke up underneath the piano. Steve and I promptly got our stuff together, said our goodbyes and thank-yous, and hit the road. The drive back was long and uneventful. We missed a nasty ice storm by an hour or so. That would've made the trip truly miserable. The 911 doesn't like ice and snow with summer tires on. That's fo sho!

That is all. Go away.

Words of the Day
discomfiture - anxious embarrassment: disconcertion
claque - a group of followers hired to applaud at a performance
efficacy - capacity or power to produce a desired effect
lecherous - given to excessive indulgence in sexual activity
bathos - triteness or triviality of style

2004-12-20T11:34:00.000-05:00

The CT Department of Motor Vehicles failed miserably last week in making the roads a safer place. The Jeep was registered with ease. I even cut the whole line of about 60 people. I also put the top on this weekend with the help of my brother which made last night's snow storm bareable. It has some other kinks to work out but I don't really have much left to do with it at this point, except the exhaust. The exhaust is just two shitty bend-it-yourself pipes with cherry bomb mufflers that barely reach past the driver and passenger seats. It's really loud. It sets off car alarms if I accelerate hard enough while driving by parked cars. Yeehaw.

Thursday we had some gay Accenture holiday party. It was stupid. I drank two glasses of red wine and poked jest at the Accenture wives. The holiday spirit was quietly crushed by the "one day you could have all this (if you slave hard enough for us, muuahahaha)" miasma that permeated the mcmansion. People came back to my apartment for some more fun and then I made the mistake of staying up until 4 with Ben's law school buddies. Needless to say, I didn't make it into work the next day.

I spent the weekend up at Mount Snow again at Kevin's pad. Saturday was incredible. We were up for first chair and were on the slopes by 8:30. It was perfect corduroy over packed powder. That wonderful kinesthetic feeling of perfect carving was with me for most of the morning runs. It got crowded, skiied off, and icy towards the end of the day, but I was still out until after 3.

I met up with Steve, Kendra and Kirk at various times throughout the day. We all met up around 4 at Cuzzin's for some Apres Ski tallboys. Kevin's friends Matt and Katie were there as well. It was decided at Cuzzin's that everyone was going to stay the night at Kevin's. So...partytime, as if Thursday night with the coworkers wasn't enough for me. Steve, Kendra, Kirk and I eventually headed out to the Dover Bar and Grill (DBG) for food which took forever but was very rewarding. We then headed back to Kevin's and picked him up for a late night at Deacon's Den. They had an awesome band but no one was there because its still early in the season so it was kind of sad. We also ran into the Mount Snow resident snowboard pro, Marselle. He was a conceited dick, but fun to provoke. We stayed til the bar closed and quickly passed out back at Kevin's. I slept on a love seat and my back is still sore. Next time I'll bring the thermarest and sleeping bag just in case.

Happy Holidays.

Words of the Day
trilby - soft felt hat with indented crown (British)
outré - grossly unusual or unconventional: eccentric
thrall - the state of being under the control of another person: slavery
tawdry - tastelessly showy: garish
lascivious - driven by lust

2004-12-13T14:12:00.000-05:00

I've been very busy lately with many projects but the DMV has been wasting most of my time. I finally picked up the 9-1-1. It's the greatest car ever. It is so entirely superior to anything I've ever driven. I am such a snob. So I've spent my time trying to get it and the incredibly not-road-legal jeep on the road. This has proved frustrating, but I suspected this because it has contained several trips to the DMV. As long as you tell yourself the first time that there is no way you could have possibly filled everything out exactly how they wanted it and you will surely need to come back a second time (and maybe third or, now, fourth as in my case) then you won't be dissapointed. I learned this lesson a long time ago. The DMV's generous hours (open til 4:30 Tuesday to Friday) and incredibly helpful employees make the experience even more enjoyable. As I mentioned above, I will be returning for the fourth (and hopefully final time) to get the dreaded Jeep back on the road this week.

Here's some news on other things that kept me sick for three weeks from lack of resting. The subwoofer amplifier is coming along slowly, but at least it's coming. The power supply is nearly done and the board is pretty much all sodomized. I'll spend an evening doing some machining in Jim's garage but hopefully I can have it done for partytime Thursday night. The Jeep requires some work to at least make it driveable in the winter...like a top. The top is covered in nasty shit from a fire we had in the garage a long time ago (our Volvo burned to a crisp because...well that's another story for another time...and it would incriminate my dad). I went to the Homo Deposit and picked up two wonderful cancer-causing agents for cleaning the top: denatured alcohol and acetone. What was the first thing I did when I got home? You guessed it, I spilled the denatured alcohol all over my arm...and then made a cocktail. I'm not too worried though, I'll probably die from exposure on a mountain top before the cancer takes hold. Ah well. I can't remember what else I've been keeping busy with. I guess I shouldn't have had that cocktail after all. I do know though that alot of my free time has been spent driving the Porsche.

This past weekend I went to Mt. Snow for a weekend of skiing and debauchery. We had a great time eventhough the conditions were pretty miserable Saturday. Steve and Kendra showed up late for a little schnaeboarding but were too hungover to stay the night. Sunday I rolled out of bed around 10 and found it colder and snowing. It probably would've been a great day but I had to get home to help the folks get things ready for Christmas. Driving home was great. It was clear, cool and dry and the 911 was ripping. It's most dangerous on the highway simply because of how comfortable it feels at high speeds (100+ mph). I'm so going to get a massive ticket or arrested but the speeding just can't be helped. The car also inspires other drivers who think they're tough to drive fast. People will try to catch up and pass you. Then you blow them away. Anyway I got home without a ticket and then spent two hours in prickly pine bushes putting up some stupid lights. It was exhilerating.

This Thursday there's a Christmas party one of the big swinging dicks from my company is having at his big swinging house in Farmington. I wasn't going to go because I can't stand all the brown-nosing and empty promises of base touching. However, friends from my work project are going so I decided I guess will too. I'll either A) drink alot and make an ass of myself or B) try and lift the big swinging dick's hot new plasma TV. I figure if I go there I might as well make it worth my while. I know he's got to have a big plasma TV or at something expensive I can snake. Either way it's going to suck but I'm having a party at my apartment afterwards so that should make things better. And hopefully the sub will be done by then as well to destroy everyone's head.

Oh yes, another good bit of news. I found out last week that the Porsche is not, in fact, a North American model. It's a grey market import. This means its faster (230HP instead of 207HP) and lighter. I think the guy sold it to me not knowing it was an import. I should have paid an additional $5K. It has smaller bumpers and comes with this ridiculous german medical kit under the hood. It's called a medical kit but it really should be a called a trauma kit. I mean, there's enough bandaging in there to take of someone who's lost an arm. Classic. German. Ich fliegen fort.

Words of the Day
scullery - a small room near the kitchen (British)
putative - commonly put forth as true on inconclusive grounds: reputed, supposed
miscreant - a person without moral scruples: reprobate
prosaic - not fanciful or imaginative
puritanical - exaggeratedly proper: prissy

2004-11-30T10:28:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty damn sure that Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday. The food, the friends, the family. Every year, the fourth Wednesday of November you know you're going to meet up with most of your old friends from high school at a neighborhood bar. And every year, the fourth Thursday of November you know you're going to play a football game with the neighborhood assholes and then eat until you pass out after trying not to die laughing when Dad makes up a prayer. You then have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to look forward to for the same shenanigans. It's absolutely the shortest, sweetest holiday. It's quite a jovial time.

Anyway, that's how my Thanksgiving went. We had parties at the apartment both Wednesday and Friday and by the time Saturday night rolled around I was exhausted. We stayed out until the bar closed, said our final farewells, and went back for a deep sleep.

A few other cool things have happened. Saturday I finally went rockcliming with my newly purchased gear. Jimmy has a cool place to practice in the West Hartford Reservoir on a good 50 foot rock face. It has mantles, overhangs, flat rock, etc. all on this fairly small face. It was really cool. It's absolutely nothing I've ever done before. You get to climb lines you would never otherwise try because a fall would result in certain death. So you get in these dangerous situations but they're really not that dangerous because when you fall (and I did) you just get caught by your belayer. I also did some rappelling down this face which was equally as fun but not nearly as tiring.

Yesterday I recieved a bunch of parts for the ESP 500W sub amp. I started sodomozing it together and hopefully will be done in the next couple of weeks. I finished up the Straight 8 speakers last week (pictures on the dumbbox) and they sound awesome.

Not much else to report, but I should get the 911 this week. Uh-oh.

Words of the Day
surreptitious - marked by quiet caution and secrecy: lurking, clandestine
estancia - (cattle) ranch in south America
subterfuge - something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an activity
imprecation - the act of calling down a curse that invokes evil; slanderous accusation
consternation - fear resulting from the awareness of danger: dismay

2004-11-23T10:59:00.000-05:00

I caught a cold the weekend before last when I decided it would be a good idea to sleep outside on a couch. When I woke up the water I had brought with me to the couch was frozen. I thought I had the cold beat but last night I woke up at 5AM with a raging cough. I really hope it gets better for this week's festivities. Because of the cold I haven't been doing anything terribly exciting, but I did force myself to go see the Reverend Glasseye and His Wooden Legs up in Boston. The Reverend put on an excellent show and I bought his new CD while at the "venue". I reccommend him to all.

I went to Jim's last night to finish painting the speakers. We had this awesome idea to make them look like stacked dice. We even made a mask out of wood with 7 holes to use for the painting. I started spraying the dice on and overspray got everywhere and it was going to take forever so we just decided to fuck it. We took some white and red spray paint and randomly sprayed everywhere. They look really shitty now. Whatever, they will probably sound better than your $2000 German speakers. Tonight we will hopefully pop all the drivers in a get them pumping.

Party at my place Wednesday night. Everyone's invited.

Words of the Day
assuage - to cause to be more favorably inclined, satisfy (thirst): appease, slake
litany - any long and tedious address or recital
tinnitus - a ringing booming sensation in one or both ears (apparently the head sound guy for Metallica has tinnitus at three separate frequencies in both ears at about 80 decibels, that's nearly shouting loud)
admonish - counsel in terms of someone’s behavior: warn, caution
maunder - wander aimlessly; talk indistinctly: mutter

2004-11-16T15:47:00.000-05:00

I don't really feel like relaying this past weekends activities. It was fun partying at RPI that involved wearing the Whalers sweatshit so you know that means bad news.

Saturday I went skiing with 7+ snowboarders. This was sort of irritating but it was great to get out on the mountain for the first tracks of the season. Unfortunately I am realizing that my primarily liftserve winters are drawing to an end. It's fun but can get boring and it's certainly way too crowded. There's always someone in my way or someone who doesn't see me. Plus, tele/touring (like going up the mountaing under your own power before going down) is a much healthier hobby. Also, you get to enjoy the technicalities of mountaineering while you're doing it. I don't plan on ever giving up liftserve for good, but I probably will start to concentrate on tele more than liftserve starting next winter. This summer will be for collecting gear.

One of my roommates was given a large, two 10-inch cone, car subwoofer. Although I'm not even done with the Straight-8s I'm starting to put together an amplifier for this thing. It will be based off of an ESP kit: Project 68. 500+ watts. It's an interesting design because it has no built-in adjustments. It's 27dB of gain and that's all there is. Once I understand it I should be able to change out resistors to adjust the gain and operational frequencies but the first step is to get it together...without killing myself. Certain parts will operate at ~60V DC and about 5 amps. Huzzah!

Words of the Day
antimacassar - a cover to protect to back or arms of furniture
expectorate - clear out the chest and lungs; discharge phlegm: clear out, spit
miasmic - of noxious stench from atmospheric pollution; filled with vapor
nonagenarian - being from 90 to 99 years old
barmy - marked by spirited enjoyment; mentally irregular: zestful, loony

2004-11-10T10:49:00.000-05:00

Well it's been an interesting past couple of weeks. I've been in a serious search for a car and ended up deciding on the mid-80s German sportscar category. This narrows it down to a Porsche or a BMW. If you're going to get a mid-80s Porsche, well, it better be a 911 and if you're going to get an E30 BMW, well, it better be an M3. The first generation M3s are very hard to come by so I've decided on the 911. I've actually found the one I'm going to buy and hopefully will buy it this week.

So, last Friday Jim and I decided to head up north to do some hiking and retrieve his 2002. This is a list of our destinations: Hartford->East Hartland->New Hartford->Keene Valley->Lac Manitou->Hartford. We headed up to East Hartland, CT Friday evening to check out an '84 911. It was the European model and in way too nice condition for me. The guy selling it was a state cop and he was asking around $24K. Too much. We then headed a bit south to New Hartford to check out the Ski Sundown ski swap. I tried on some tele gear, but didn't buy anything. Jim bought an oldschool pair of wood tele skis. We then headed for the Adirondacks.

We arrived in Keene Valley around 1AM and headed up to the Giant's Washbowl. We got all settled into camp by 3AM, had few beers, and were in bed by 4AM. We got up the next morning and headed for the summit. It was a steep hike up and pretty chilly at the summit, but a clear day overall and great views. We then headed down the Roaring Brook trail back to Giant's Washbowl, picked up the overnight gear, and headed back for the Rabbit. Pretty uneventful hike, but I took some great photos up at the summit.

We arrived at the Hoen's on Lac Manitou around 9PM. Pone was not expecting us at all because he doesn't check the answering machine and was rather suprised. We had a few beers and then hit the sack. I slept like the dead. The next day was spent shovelling out Jim's 2002 and repairing his bad caliper. We got it running pretty well and prepared to take off early for home the next day.

Monday we got up, tinkered with the 2002 and hit the road. It took about 8 hours to get back - definitely the longest I've ever been in a car from Manitou. That kinda sucked.

Either way it was certainly a change from the regular weekend stupidity. It was great to get outdoors and go for a good hike. My legs are still wicked sore. This upcoming weekend is Alumni Weekend at the house and I'm pretty excited. Back to the regular weekend stupidity.

Pics of the weekend on the dumbbox.

Words of the Day
marquee - large and often sumptuous tent; permanent canopy
repudiation - rejecting or disclaiming as invalid: renunciation
accede - submit or yield to another’s wish: defer
abrogation - an official or legal cancellation: repeal, annulment
sempiternal - having no known beginning and presumably no end: endless

2004-11-03T11:23:00.001-05:00

Aarrggghh! We're all doomed. A Republican House, Senate and President. And the Supreme Court will soon have a conservative majority. This isn't the way the country was intended to work. I would normally say that it really doesn't matter in the long run because not much can really change in four years. However, with this line up anything is possible. Soon the Bible will become the main text in elementary schools and newspeak will become the national language.

Well, I'm running away to Canada this weekend. The borders will probably be clogged with fleeing New Englanders. I haven't decided if I'll be coming back or not...

Words of the Day
brazier - metal container in which charcoal or coal is burned
dolorous - showing sorrow: lachrymose
amphisbaena ["am(p)-f&s-'bE-n&] - a serpent with a head at each end of its body (Greek mythology)
phantasmagoria - a constantly changing medley of real or imagined images
inure - to accustom to accept something undesirable; to become of advantage

2004-11-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

A horrifically toxic weekend. It all started Thursday night with co-worker Aleana's birthday. We went to some shitty club (the Brickyard, better know as the Dickyard) in hartford that had unbelievably cheap drinks. That was the initial problem. Somewhere in there I had a shot of Jaeger. That was the second problem. We went back to my apartment after closing the bar for more entertainment. They say bad things come in threes, right? Well, someone (most likely me) broke out the Hulk Hands. That was the third problem. I beat on a few co-workers (including two ladies, whoops). One of the ladies ended up smacking me in the back of the head and I did sailor's dive into one of the suspended speakers. My thin blood trickled over my face while I layed on the ground. I slowly recovered. Eventually they left. The dumbbox has pictures that tell a better story. Notice the absurd amount of hats floating around.

I didn't got to work Friday. I didn't do anything Friday night. Oh, my roommate Ben hooked up with some ugly fat chick. Ha! Speaking of ugly fat chicks, co-worker Nate was on a serious hog hunt Thursday night. He didn't have any luck though.

Saturday was Halloween party time. Oliver came up and we went to the homebrew store. I bought materials for a Scotch Ale and he bought the few materials needed to make hard cider. Fast forward a few hours. Ben has decided that the three of us should be the Sobriety Exterminators. We're going to wear white coveralls and pesticide sprayer backpacks that have some terrible elixir within. Ok, great idea Ben, how is this all going to come together...Tripp. So we go to Homo Deposit, Walgreens and the Liquor store. Somehow it all comes together and we have pretty silly costumes and we each have about 2 gallons of some very potent booze. Mine was called Black Jesus, Dave had The Passion, and Ben's was Red Menace (he couldn't come up with some mildly offensive religious pseudonym). All three were based on about a liter of Grave's grain alcohol. Delicious. Oliver dressed up as the shittiest robot ever in the leftover cardboard from out pesticide sprayers and coveralls. One of his arms said "Man Machine" and the other said "I am the robots". Nobody seemed to get it. Oh well, I guess that's why they're all going to be lawyers and not Kraftwerk-lovers. We went to two UCONN Law parties after starting with some people at our place. We gave out alot of the elixirs. People drank the most Black Jesus eventhough they said it wasn't as good as the others. I was very adamant about forcing the liquid on people. Roboman (at times - Cardboard Lobbyist) and I almost got into two fights. Once with a pudgy Roman Senator whose girlfriend I kept poking with my pesticide applicator. The other was almost with Hugh Heffner. He punched Roboman in his cardboard head for no reason and Roboman did not take kindly to this. Roboman and I can become a somewhat menacing duo after enough booze and Heff stepped down which was the correct thing to do.

I don't recall if there was anything else particularly amusing that occurred. However, Dave (who was sober) was driving us around in the shaggin wagon. Two girls came back to the apartment with us. It was suprisingly easy to get them in the car even with a license plate that has the letters GHB on it. Ha!

Dumbbox has some pictures of course.

All in all the weekend was taxing on the body. Next weekend I think I'm heading for the Great White North with Jimmy to retrieve his 2002 and do some hiking in the 'Dacks.

Words of the Day
henotheism - the worship of one god without denying the existence of others
castigate - censure severely; inflict punishment: chastise, correct
iridescence - the visual property of something having a milky brightness: opalescence
courtesan - a woman who cohabits with an important man: concubine, doxy
libidinous - driven by lust: lewd

2004-10-25T16:17:00.000-04:00

There's one other thing I wanted to point out today. Last night I came across something masterful. New musical enojoyment that goes by the name of Reverend Glasseye and his Wooden Legs. It's sort of like carnival music meets Tom Waits. Check out the MP3s on the site. Masterful. They're having a new album release party November 19th at the Middle East in Cambridge. I'm so there dude.

2004-10-25T13:52:00.000-04:00

Classic rockstar weekend complete with booze, drugs (well the moonshine certainly cannot be considered booze) and women. Steve's blog has an excellent recount with pictures. So instead I'll just do...

A Saturday in the Life of Yours Truly.
10:30AM - Pick myself up of the floor. Shake off the hangover. Where am I? Somewhere in Medford, ahh yes, Mercaldi's.
11:00AM - Steve and Mercaldi wake up and we discuss plans for the day. It should involve food, home depot, stop'n'shop, a Tufts bio lab, Groveland, Haverhill, and then Manch-vegas for the HomeBrew Halloween party.
11:30AM - Arrive at Johnny D's for brunch. Excellent. Then back to Mercaldi's.
01:30PM - Arrive at home depot for costume shopping. Mercaldi and I will be robots. We need flexible aluminum ducting for the arms and legs, duct tape, and aluminum duct tape. Around $40 for both costumes, not bad. Then off to various stores looking for mason jars for Steve' potato moonshine. We can't find any. Must be jamming season. Pick up some aluminum foil at a food store. Head to the bio lab so Mercaldi can transfer his bacteria cultures. Go dumpsterdiving at the physics building and snag a sweet rack-mount power supply.
05:00PM - Arrive back at Mercaldi's. Shower, collect overnight items, head to the Tasty Gourmet for dinner. Then up to Groveland. Collect Steve's overnight things and his flamingo costume.
07:00PM - Arrive at the house of Steve's friend John. Get the pale ale homebrew together, get the milky moonshine ready, take forever to build the robot costumes. Off to Manch-vegas.
09:45PM - Arrive at Kirk and Sully's apartment in Manch-vegas. Quickly put the costumes together. Enter the apartment. Homebrew. Shots. 01010011. Booze. Moonshine. Spill a drink on Steve's new camera. 00000000. Fight the other robot. 00000001. Pass out in the robot costume. Woken up. Robot costume is destroyed. Hook up in the kitchen. 11111111. People keep walking in. I wish they would stop. Pass out in the dingy basement.

Words of the Day
precocious - characterized by exceptionally early development
polemic - involving dispute or controversy; a controversy
pique - to arouse anger in: irritate, pride
pittance - an inadequate payment
ablution - the ritual of washing of a priest’s hands or of sacred vessels

2004-10-22T11:59:00.000-04:00

I'm wicked bullshit about certain events that transpired yesterday. Recently I've been riding my bike to and from work. It's only about two miles. It's great. I can get there faster than in a car because I don't have to deal with traffic or lights and I get a quick workout. And I get to be sweaty and mildly stinking when I show up for work.

Anyway, on the way home yesterday I was accosted by 6-8 young "urbanites". I was riding up the road minding my own business and I noticed this group of kids (all 14-16 probably) on the sidewalk. I didn't think anything of it. But then as I was riding by one of them jump-kicked at me from the sidewalk and another pelted me with a basketball. I skidded to a stop and confronted the little fuckers. They came at me with unintelligible urban vernacular and gang gesticulations. I stood my ground but I knew I could not defend myself on the pavement in riding cleats. I also didn't want to leave my bike. So I attempted to scold them with fatherly banter. As far as I could tell they heard nothing. I then swore at them and began to ride away. They chased after me and started throwing rocks. They missed but nailed some cars driving by (one of them had a yankees hat on - no wonder he missed).

I saw a cop a little further up the road and I thought about relating my story to him. I then figured if he harassed the little bastards then they might be waiting for me next time with a premeditated intent to do some damage. I will continue to ride this way home from work but if it happens again I'll change my route. I've also told me friends in the area and will keep a cell phone in my pocket so I can call for backup next time. If I could get them onto one of the lawns I could do some brutal damage with the spiked riding cleats. Excellent.

But, seriously, this really angers me. I did absolutely nothing and these kids attacked me. They probably would've taken my shit if they had knocked me off the bike or, even worse, knocked me over into the street during rushhour. Total bullshit. This is also my route home that I take nearly every day. It starts in a sketchy area but not too bad. If I couldn't ride to work anymore it would be a major bummer. That's what I look forward to during the day (certainly not work).

Arrg. Going into a weekend of boozing in Boston all pissed off probably isn't a good thing...ah well. Yo ho!

As an afterthought I might start carrying one of those Cobra Retractable batons. They can open a big ole can of whoopass. Or maybe my grandfather's sword from the Marines. Run some of the scoundrels through.

Words of the Day
brook-to put up with something unpleasant: endure, tolerate
ascetic-pertaining to the practice of rigorous self-discipline or self-denial; one who denounces the material: austere
tortuous-highly involved or intricate: convoluted, winding, intricate
pariah-a person who is rejected (from society or home): outcast
onager-medieval sage weapon; Asiatic donkey

2004-10-18T11:21:00.000-04:00

A rather uncircumstantial weekend. Friday night I went over to Jim's and we finished up the Straight-8 cabinets. Dumbbox has the details. The spray on glue used to stick in the insulation was horribly toxic so I dressed in a full Tyvek suit and used a chemical respirator. There are pictures of course. I look quite silly. Saturday was spent tinkering with the Jeep. I've got it running pretty damn well now and all that is really left to make it "street legal" is to have an exhaust shop do a real exhaust (not my ghetto cherrybombs that stick out behind the front wheels) and cover up the transmission tunnel somehow. We started out Saturday night watching the game and drinking some CC and gingers. All were pretty well saturated by the time we set out for the UCONN Law party nearby. At some point Ben and I got into a fight and knocked some furniture over. I had him pinned in the corner when he grabbed a vase from a nearby table and was about to smash it over my head when Dave (our third roommate) jumped in and took it away. That could've been real funny. There was a little Korean man who kept egging us on. I eventually went over and manhandled him into the skirmish but he got real pissed. I was afraid he was going to break out some crazy kung fu shit and I started laughing hysterically because all I could think of was that Simpson's where the Chinese mafia and the Italian mafia get into a fight in their front yard and that little China man comes flying through the window...Apparently he didn't see the same humor in the situation. The rest of the night is foggy but I recall one point where both Ben and Dave stepped into a pond out behind the party one right after the other. I was taking a piss at the time and got it all over myself because I was laughing so hard. Sunday was less than eventful. There was a great plan to meet up with Steve and Kendra and go for a hike. I did the research while still drunk early Sunday morning before leaving. We were going to hike up to this abandoned logging town called Glastenbury in southern VT. Well we missed a turn on the way up, it started raining, I was the only one who actually had any hiking gear, etc. Nothing worked out the way it was supposed to so we just ended up going to the Madison Brewery in Bennington for dinner and then coming home. Oh well. Jim and I watched Rally Corsica when I got back and he said the hike up there is actually pretty tough so it's probably a good thing we didn't find it seeing as no one was prepared. Sebastien Loeb (running for Citroen) has clinched the title for the year with two races still left. The dude is only like 23. This is certainly the beginning of a long reign. Oh, the shaggin' wagon is pretty much done. I can still get through all the gears, but can't apply any gas in third really because it just revs way up without anything happening. It also stinks like burning ATF when you drive it. We're hoping it will fail in a dramatic way, like a big explosion or something. Anyway, I think it's finally time to get that 911...

Words of the Day
ape-to imitate slavishly but often with an absurd result
insensate-devoid feeling and animation; without compunction or human feeling: inhuman, cold
monomania-a mania restricted to one thing or idea
avatar-a new personification of a familiar idea; manifestation of a Hindu deity; incarnation
imperious-able to deal authoritatively with ideas: masterful

2004-10-06T10:50:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was fun but rather uneventful. I was up in Boston both nights and hung out with some guys from the house as well as some folks from high school. It's always funny to see how your friends from college interact with your friends from before. They got along pretty well. I ran into some kid at a house party in Cambridge whose uncle was my science teacher in like 4th grade: "Wild Bill" Nixon. He both agreed that Mr. Nixon was a nutcase. Wild Bill told our class a gay joke...in 4th grade! Nobody got it of course but one of the kids did turn out to be gay many years later. He also used to throw glass vials at us if we weren't paying attention and he used to light his hair on fire to show us what burning protein smelled like. I remember one time he ordered a giant magnifying sheet and was showing us how you could like shit on fire outside by concentrating the sun's rays. He ended up lighting part of the building's siding on fire and we had to put it out with an extinguisher. It was pretty funny. There are an endless amount of stories about the guy. He's definitely the one who got me interested in science and probably engineering. So, I thank you, Wild Bill.

We finally got a couch for the apartment. It's this huge green sectional with two recliners, a pull out bed and one of the sections seat back folds down to reveal a table. It's been in a basement for a while so it smells a little funny, but it is perfect. I promise I'll take some pics.

Not sure what this weekend holds, but we'll see...

Words of the Day
diaphanous - so thin as to transmit light: insubstantial
flummery - bland custard or pudding of oatmeal; meaningless ceremony and flattery
importune - beg persistently and urgently
impropriety - an improper demeanor or act: indecency, improperness
Asmodeus - king of demons (Jewish demonology)

2004-09-27T09:50:00.000-04:00

This weekend was pretty quiet, except for Thursday night. I went out to Springfield, MA (don't ask) with people from work. It was the usual wasted shenanigans (hey, Farva, what's that restaurant you like down by the river?) that will cause lots of awkward moments today. Whatever. Friday I collected the materials for the speakers and I was up until 3:30 or so building one of them. I haven't started on the other yet. I still have to order parts for the crossover, but hopefully I can get the cabinets done this week as long as Jimmy gets over his cold.

The Boxxer went back together Saturday night after I drove all the way to Bethel, CT to get the parts from Bethel Cycle. They had a couple of cool fixed gears there. Speaking of fixed gears, I picked up a shitty road bike from a Baptist Church tagsale in Hartford. They lured me in by asking only $20 but that was only a very small fraction of the true payment. I had to sit there and listen to this lady tell me I was a sinner and what not because I don't go to church and I'm going straight to hell because I don't talk to god everyday. Ugg. A great way to get someone interested in your church. She also gave me some pamphlets that went straight in the garbage. I don't understand these people...not at all.

Anyway, Steve came down Sunday and we went for a ride at Nassahegon out in Burlington. It wasn't as good as Nepaug but we found some cool stuff. We discovered the infamous "Widowmaker" and its little brother "Anglophobia". We didn't attempt either. There was a cool trail across Stone Rd from the Widowmaker trail that had some nice ramps built into it and a couple of drops. My neck is definitely not healed as I tweaked it again just from the impact of the drop. Also near the Widowmaker were some old dirt jumps that Steve thoroughly enjoyed. We then ended up in Devil's Kitchen and went for a long XC-like ride. We had to take the road to get back because we were so far from the cars. Road riding sucks on 40lb freeride bikes. Probably Nepaug next time.

Words of the Day
dybbuk ['di-b&k] - a demon enters the body of a living person and controls that body's behavior (Jewish folklore)
trope - language used in a figurative manner: figure or speech
feral - wild and menacing: savage
psychotropic - affecting the mind or mood: psychactive
couture [kü-'tur, -'t[UE]r] - high fashion designing and dressmaking

2004-09-22T09:40:00.000-04:00

Jimmy and I disassembled the Boxxer last night to investigate the locking problem that caused my accident. The issue was immediately obvious. The lower bushings were driven far down into the slider and because the insides of the slider tubes are tapered this made the bushings overly tight on the stanchions. This probably originated because we installed the bushings too low in the sliders to begin with (we forgot to measure how deep the old ones were when we first replaced them). The reason we installed them too deep is because upon visual inspection there is a small ridge about halfway down the slider so we figured that the lower bushings were supposed to seat on this lip. As it turns out this was way too deep and the stanchions were actually disengaging from the lower bushings. When I did that large drop it looks like one side nailed the top of bushing, pushing it down farther, and then jammed into it where it was stuck until last night. Needless to say, the bushings are ratfucked and will need to be replaced. This time we will make the appropriate measurements to make sure the lower bushings are always engaged with the stanchions even at (and slightly beyond) full extension.

I will post this rebuild information on the dumbbox with pics when we get the new bushings in.

Last night we also went over the Straight-8 blueprints and I will begin collecting materials today at Homo Deposit.

Words of the Day
bowdlerize - edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
riposte - return thrust after a parry: retort
celerity - a rate that is rapid
aberrate - diverge from the expected
lummox - an awkward stupid person: lout, oaf

2004-09-21T08:49:00.000-04:00

My neck is much better today. It seems that the swelling in the spine has subsided for the most part and I have near full range motion. I suppose it really has time to heal at night when the weight of my head isn't resting on it. Perhaps I'll be good for a ride this weekend. Now it just feels like I have pulled muscles in my neck (and shoulder).

Here is the speaker kit I will be building for the apartment. Unfortunately they are no longer available but Oliver has an unbuilt kit that's been sitting around for a year or so that I'm going to take over. Hopefully Jimmy and I can get started on that this week. Bottlehead is an awesome company for audio(phile) kits.

Words of the Day
coalesce - mix together different elements: blend, merge
massif - a block of the earth's crust bounded by faults and shifted to form peaks of a mountain range
pantomime - a performance using gestures and body movements without words
kreplach - Jewish dumplings
buxom - having a large bosom or pleasing curves (Gail)

2004-09-20T09:21:00.000-04:00

I see that Stephen has started updating his blog again. This has motivated me to do the same. Although there is really nothing exciting about the work week, the weekends are definitely worth the words.

It appears that my last blog was just about 3 months ago at the beginning of the summer. All I can say is that summer went by incredibly fast. I can't possibly recall everything that's happened in that last 12 weeks but alot of the time has been spent moving into my new apartment, working on the jeep, and riding bikes.

This past weekend Ben and I drank and fought Friday night and then I headed up to Boston for some boozing and biking Saturday and Sunday. I met up with Stephen, Michael, (Abi)gail, and Liza at Michael's in Medford. We went out to the Beantown pub and proceeded throught the usual shenanigans (but they kept me away from the Harvard campus this time). Mams. Sunday Steve and I went for a ride at Bruce and Tom's Excellent Adventure out in Gloucester. It was a pretty serious freeride park and I fucked myself up pretty seriously on a double drop. I chipped a tooth and have given myself a horrible neck sprain complete with the sore throat. Basically its an over-extension of the ligaments in the neck vertebrae caused by some rapid movement of the head or body. Apparently it's a pretty common sports injury so I'm not too worried about it, but it will take a little while to heal. I'm blaming it on my currently rigid Boxxer fork. It needs to be taken apart again and the bushings need to be inspected because the stanchions aren't moving at all. It's not a very effective freeride fork at the moment.

I'll take some pics of the new apartment and post them on the dumbbox today or tomorrow.

For any of you outdoors folks I strongly recommend the following text: Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills. Even if you're only into hiking this a very important text to have. Buy it, read it, know it.

Words of the Day
stasis - an abnormal state in which the normal flow of a liquid is slowed or stopped
evanescence - the event of fading from sight (yes, I had quite the evanescence after landing on my head Sunday)
miff - a state of irritation or annoyance
precarious - affording no ease or reassurance: perilous, shaky
nonpareil ["nän-p&-'rel] - eminent beyond or above comprehension: unrivaled, paragon

2004-06-25T15:08:00.000-04:00

Alright, so I went to Europe for the first time last week. I left from Boston Friday th 18th and arrive in London on Saturday morning. I met Steve there and we immediately took a train to York. The first two things I noticed were how kind people are over there and how clean everything is. People seem to care much more for their surroundings. We met Steve's good friend from home, Geoff, at the York train station and brought our stuff to the Geoff's friend's place. Geoff's friend, Irish Martin, and Martin's flatmates were kind enough to let Steve and I crash on the floor for three nights. I don't remember much about Sunday because I was dazed from all the travelling and lack of sleep. We spent Sunday and Monday walking around the ancient city of York. We saw the York Minster and walked all the antiquitous walls that surround the city. It was a very cool place. Most of the buildings are hundreds of years old and don't have a straight piece of wood on them. You'll have to check out the pictures at the dumbbox for a better idea. Sunday night we went out in classic hooligan fashion after drinking 9% Tenent's Strong for the England vs. France football match. England lost. The English were pissed. At one point I told someone I was Canadian and he immediately assumed I was French Canadian. I narrowly talked my way out of being attacked by angry hooligans. We also spent alot of time enjoying the old pubs and hidden beer gardens. Tuesday we headed for Glasgow. Glasgow is a very rough place. It's known for having the most violent inhabitants in the UK. We narrowly escaped fisticufs on three separate occasions. Our plan was to head to Ben Nevis on Wednesday and stop on Glencoe on the way back. However, unprecedented circumstances on Tuesday ruined these plans. We went out to a real locals' place called the Scotia. We were watching Euro 2004 and having a few pints. Eventually the locals started coming in, someone brought out a guitar and then there was a harmonica. Steve ended up playing guitar for the first time publicly. It was ridiculous. After the bar closed we were invited to an "afterhours" pool haul. There were security cameras at the door and stairs up to the place and monitors inside so everyone could see if cops were coming. There was a secret exit in the back. We stayed here until very late playing pool with Fast Eddy and a 60s punk rocker. They kept buying us beers and forcing cigarettes on Steve and Geoff. As a result we didn't make it to Ben Nevis the next day. Instead, we headed for Edinburgh. Here we walked the Royal Mile and saw the town. It reminded a great deal of Montreal. At one point we were assailed by an old Scotsman who kept touching Steven and telling him how handsome he was. Geoff and I couldn't stop laughing. They best part of Edinburgh though is the Holyrood Park. It's a huge volcanic structure right in the middle of the city. We hiked up to the top, Arthur's Seat, at about 850 ft. We met an Australian named Liam along the way and ventured down the other side to a place called the Sheep's Heid. Apparently it's one of the oldest pubs in Scotland so we figured it'd be an excellent place to try some Haggis. There I had my first (and probably my last) serving of haggis with neeps (squash) and taddies (potatoes). It wasn't that it tasted bad, but it sat in my stomach like a rock for about two days. Anyway, it was fun. We hiked back to the train station and went back to Glasgow for a good night's sleep in the Euro Hostel. The following day, Thursday, we took a plane from Glasgow-Prestwick Airport to Oslo-Torp via RyanAir. It cost about $75 total for the three of us to fly. Pretty good deal for a two and a half hour plane ride. The first thing you notice about Norway is that the sun never goes down. Well, it does, but only slightly and between the hours of about 11PM and 4AM. It's possible to go to a club around 11PM and end up missing the whole "dark" of the night. Anyway, we were picked up by some of Geoff's friends, Sveine, Mari, and Fred Olaf. We were driven to the fjord-town Sandefjord and picked up by a fellow in a powerboat named Runi. The fjords are beautiful. They're like nothing I've ever seen (obviously because we don't have them in the US). I would have gone swimming but the waters were filled with jellyfish. Captain Runi drove us to another fjord-town called Tonsburg. Apparently it's the oldest town in Norway and was a Viking capital. We stayed the night with another friend of Geoff's, Thor-Andre. These people really couldn't have been nicer. We walked around Tonsburg a bit on Thursday and Friday and then headed for Oslo by car. Another of Geoff's friends from school, PG, took us in his Opal. Everybody drives turbodiesels over there. A much better idea than the petrol-guzzling behemoths that Americans drive. Oslo was astoundingly clean and astoundingly expensive. A beer at a pub there was about $10 US. Ridiculous. So you have to buy beers at the grocery stores and only have a drink or two while you're out. Unfortunately it was raining the whole time we were in Oslo and we didn't get to walk around alot. It seemed like a pretty cool place though. Again, we watched lots of Euro 2004 there. I flew home from the Oslo Internation Airport just outside the city on Sunday. Check out the pics on dumbbox for a better idea of the journey.

I would really like to live over there some day. Europeans are very kind. They're clean and care about the environment they live in. They also seemed generally more wordly or, perhaps, sophisticated than Americans. Maybe they're just better educated (which is entirely possible seeing as education costs almost nothing in Europe). It's also incredibly easy to get around without owning an automobile (the worst investment ever). The only thing I didn't like was that whenever we had to stand in "queue" it seemed to take much longer than back home. I'm not sure why, perhaps people are just in less of a hurry. It's really an eye-opening experience. I don't know what percentage of Americans travel out of the country, but I would imagine it's much lower than that of other country's citizens.

Words of the Day
averse - having an active feeling of repugnance or distaste: disinclined (like the taste we had for any American tourists we happened upon)
mote and beam - small and large (repsectively) faults
scruples - motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles: conscience, moral sense
incontrovertible - impossible to deny or disprove: irrefutable
elucidate - make clear and comprehensible: clarify, enlighten (I most certainly feel so after this journey)

2004-06-21T14:58:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to say that I've survived my European vacation. Story and pics to come.

2004-06-01T11:45:00.000-04:00

My brother just graduated from high school last Friday. It didn't rain. It poured. Luckily they had tent but all the girls in their high heels were getting stuck in the mud when the walked to and from the stage to recieve their diploma. It was amusing. I didn't take any pictures of the actual ceremony because we were so far away but I did get some pictures of a dude with a sweet mullet and big ole womb broom. I'll post them soon at dumbbox.

I finally got the Santa Cruz Bullit. It's sort of a mixmatch of parts but should do fine when I get it built properly later this week. Unforunately the 5th Element (rear shock) was busted by UPS in shipping. I will be reimbursed but I have to wait for the part before I can ride it. Dumbasses. Pictures soon. I went riding at Nepaug on Sunday with Jimmy and Steve. That place was awesome. We found this trail called "Tower of Power" that had all sorts of nasty freeride obstacles. A perfect place for the Bullit. Hopefully I'll have the Bullit ready next weekend and we'll take pictures of the trail and me hurting myself.

The music sharing is just about done on the dumbbox. I'm having trouble with the streaming portion right now (download works fine), but it doesn't matter so much anyway because my upstream is only 256KB/s (the streaming will be pretty bumpy, especially if its a high quality mp3). The login is deep and the password is dish. If I get a zillion hits because other people are reading this then I'll change it. I'll let you know though.

Words of the Day
farrago - a motley assortment of things: hodgepodge (like the parts on the Bullit)
supernal - being or coming from on high: celestial
arabesque - position in which a dancer has one leg raised behind and arms outstretched in a convential pose
habituation - addiction or dependency
solicitous - fill of anxiety and concern (like Craig when we stole the Christmas tree...you heathen)

2004-05-14T11:07:00.000-04:00

This weekend is my high school fifth year reunion. Some friends and I are going to buy a keg and show up at this kid's house and force a party. Muahahhaha. But for now enjoy this amazing link: MenWhoLookLikeKennyRogers.

2004-05-10T09:38:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I was up in Boston with Steve, Billy, Beardo, Blue, Kirk, and a slew of alumni. We stayed at Turner's in Somerville. Beardo and I rode our bikes all over Boston on Saturday. We met up with Billy and Steve in Boston Common and terrorized the wannabe New-Yorkers on Newbury street. We saw two of the coolest "street" bands ever. The first was a sassy Japanese five-piece jazz band. They clearly were there just to play in the road rather than beg for donations. The second was a duo called Urban Electronica. It was the first electronic street band I have ever seen. It was two guys, one playing drums and the other with a homemade Roland-based beat machine/mixer. It was very, very cool. They basically are just trying to raise electronic music awareness in the area and they give all their donations to a local soup kitchen. Oh yeah, Steve found a sticker on a parking meter that had a skull and crossbones. It read "Pirates Against Bush". He removed the sticker and placed it on his chest. Yar.

Luckily, I do have one excellent story (I sorely miss these random adventures that seem only to occur at or with people from school). On Friday night after leaving Porter's we headed over to the MIT chapter house. They are terrible geeks and the house was dead silent on a late Friday night (actually it was probably around 2AM Saturday morning). It's a shame because they live in a beautiful 4 story, $4 million, brownstone on Mass Ave. We bothered them for while, went up onto their roof for a wonderful view and patronized a Quebecois Physics major. We (Billy, Steve, Blue, Beardo, Kirk, and I) then decided we should walk back to Somerville. Beardo got into a raging fury and power-walked home at a clip that Steve, Billy, and me could not keep up with. Blue and Kirk were lost and ended up in New Hampshire. However, about half way back, Billy, Steve and me were picked up by an illegal taxi. The driver resembled a sharp-dressed Mos Def with a fine white fedora. He drove a shiny, new black, all-leather interior Saab. Remember what your mother said about not getting into cars with strangers...well we forgot. It turns out the guy was a Freemason which made things even stranger and I wouldn't have entered the car had I known this. But, all in all, he was a nice fellow just trying to make a few extra bucks on the side (he was normally a limo driver). Kevin (the cab-driver) told us about his three kids in college and living Boston, etc. and then he told us about some people who had not paid him earlier in the evening. Well, we half-persuaded him to take us to this place because it was one the way home. We all got out and he started banging on the door shouting about his money. I noticed a tear in the screen of a downstairs window where he said he had started to harass the non-payers earlier in the night. He then proceeded to tear the entire screen off, throw open the sash, and tear the curtains and someone's comforter away from the inside the house. All this was happening while he was screaming about the money they owed. We heard people whimpering inside, obviously afraid of the black man who demanded compensation (let me tell you, there are NO black people in Boston as far as I can tell, especially in the rich suburbs). Anyway, the three of us stood there with mouths wide open as we witnessed the felony. Needless to say, we all got out of their fast...without leaving behind our faithful, felonious cab-driver. So, for a flat-rate of $10 we got to Somerville from Boston in a very nice taxi, were accomplises to a felony, and arrived back at Turner's before the blustering Beardsworth around 5AM. That was fun.

Words of the Day
quiff - a prominent forelock (think: Pert Plus hair)
puce - a color varying from dark purplish brown to dark red
louse - wingless bloodsucking insect: lice
frenetic - frenzied or frantic (like Beardo's hellfire hike to Somerville)
balustrade - a railing at the side of staircase or balcony: banister

2004-05-03T09:02:00.000-04:00

Looks like I'm going to London (among other places) with Steven and his friend from home, Geoffrey, from June 11-June 20. "Yes! London! You know...fish, chips, cup o' tea! Bad food, worse weather, Mary fuckin' Poppins! London!" I think we're going to actually head up to York, then Scotland and then to the land of the midnight sun. Maybe we'll meet up with Warren Zevon and Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, and maybe even Robert Pirsig. Anyway, let me know if there are any places we should definitely see or anything we should definitely do (besides smiling alot, showing off our perfect pearly-whites).

It looks like we can do filesharing through a built-in Windows FTP. The way to set it up is here. I'll work on it today and tomorrow and let you know what happens.

Words of the Day
quotidian - found in the ordinary course of events: mundane, routine
predilection - a predisposition in favor of something: preference, taste (Bricktop has a predilection to being terrible)
pastiche - a work of art (music) that imitates or includes the style of some previous work
cavort - play boisterously: frolic, romp
argot - a characteristic language of a particular group: jargon, vernacular

2004-04-27T09:45:00.000-04:00

Well I've finally started on a project and have actual work to do. I'm working with the tax man for the state of CT. Zounds! It could be more exciting but the people I'm working with more than make up for the lack of alacrity. Lots of links for your liking.

Nothing else too exciting. I was in Troy Friday for Kendra's lettering, my job keg (#9), and Jer's engagement. We had beers and went to the Ruck. Ya know, the usual. Luckily I didn't get cauliflower ear. The dumbbox is still undergoing work to make the pictures go faster. Don't forget about September 19th. Laibach is a ridiculous Serbian music-maker. Don't worry, they're only jokingly anti-semitic. Browse around and see what they look like. Read about them here. This website producer has some awesome artsy links including the site for Boards of Canada. If you've never heard them before then go to the link and play around. It has some music.

Words of the Day
tabla - a pair of small Indian drums
thrum - sound with monotonous hum
respite - a (temporary) relief from harm or discomfort: recess, abatement
plosive - produced by complete closure of the oral passage and subsequent burst of air (like saying 'p' or 'd')
embroil - force into some kind of situation or action: tangle, drag in

2004-04-21T15:21:00.000-04:00

I've finally been moved to a project so I'm kinda busy right now. I'll start posting again as soon as the project orientation is done with.

2004-04-15T13:29:00.000-04:00

Silly jews.

2004-04-15T09:06:00.000-04:00

Seth finally has a (luminous) blog. Hurrah! I must say, Seth, the picture of you in the sombrero is priceless. Your next assignment is to setup an account on Friendster. Huzzah!

As far as the shape of the egg goes, I don't believe it matters. Microwaves will travel away from the transmitter in a spiralling cone and I don't believe that will be focused on any one point. It might have to do with the change in density/material of the egg white and the egg yolk as that would change the path of the microwaves. A potato is consistent all the way through. Remember, in this case, the white was already cooked from the boiling, but the yolk was still a liquid. I think everybody should start throwing random shite in their microwaves and cooking until explosion. Then report what the insides are like. What would be some other good food items that have a solid outside and liquid inside I could test with?

I'll start setting up the FTP so we can share music. Until then I suggest you use the DC++ Essentialsets hub: dchub.essentialsets.net. Unfortunately it's down right now but you can check back at the website above to see when it comes back online. This is absolutely the best DC++ hub I've ever used.

Good luck to the Arch-E's with their final reviews!!!

Words of the Day
privation - a state of extreme poverty
didactic - (excessively) instructive
cogitation - a carefully considered thought about something: study
deprecating - tending to diminish or disparage: belittling, slighting
collude - act in unison or agreement and in secret towards a deceitful or illegal purpose: conspire

2004-04-14T18:11:00.000-04:00

Webserver is back up and thumbnail script is in place. Hopefully it will now be easier to look at all the pictures. Give me some feedback.

2004-04-14T08:59:00.000-04:00

Server's down. Sorry. I bet my Dad turned it off trying to save power or something. Some people just don't understand...

Here's a cool website. It's a commercial-free, online encyclopedia (you don't even have to register). It's very good. See "pluralism" below.

Words of the Day
erudite - having or showing profound knowledge: learned
gastronomy - science of good eating (I recommend Julia Child's philosophy as a starter...)
pluralism - the doctrine that reality consists of several basic substances or elements
remunerate - to pay an equivalent for: recompense
libertine - unrestrained by convention or morality: degenerate, dissolute

2004-04-13T11:58:00.000-04:00

Oh, magic, pure magic.

2004-04-13T09:28:00.000-04:00

Congrats Steve! I guess that means no more making mudpies in the rain...I'll need to wait til next week to figure if the weekend of the 23rd is ok. It probably is, but I promised another buddy I'd go to Tucks (again) with him that weekend. However, he is a serious flake so it's by no means final.

Pictures are posted at dumbbox. Some of the pictures are really big so it can be slow. I was thinking about archiving them so you could download the whole set, but that's kind of ridiculous. I'll just do a thumbnail-type view instead and try to make it user friendly.

So...Tuckerman's. I think I could write a book, but instead I'll give a quick summary. We left early on Friday, expecting to get a shelter for the seven of us (Seth, Tom, Corey, Steve, Ashley, Ian and myself). Unfortunately they had been closed out since 7AM and we arrived around 1PM. No luck there. Fortunately I had setup a deal with a guy ("Rainman") who is a member of a local ski club ("Brettl-Hupfers"). We were able to stay there for $10 a night (and we actually slept on beds!!!). They had a full bar and a great place to party. It was actually pretty similar to the house. Needless to say, we started doing ski shots of Jager (see pictures) around 3PM. People started showing up a bit later and we realized that it was basically a fraternity for adults. Results: Steve and I cut ourselves, Ashley booted, Corey (a Pike bro that came with us) hooked up with a 29 year old, and everyone was thorougly inebriated. The next day (after taking about 2 hours to get ready) we were on the trail up by 9AM and at the bottom of the bowl probably around noon. We took two runs - one up the "Left Gulley" and one in the "Center Gulley". Go here to see the "trail map". On the second run Steve and Vern climbed up over a cornice and became stuck in a rather nasty place. They both made it down alright. Steve looked whiter than Colin Powell. Seth made A turn and then fell head over heels down the entire bowl. I was in shock as he missed to large piles of rocks that certainly would have split his helmet (and probably his head) asunder. Unfortunately I didn't get the camera out in time. His equipment was all over the mountain and we waited a good hour before he and Ian were able to collect it all. We were then able to ski out about 2/3 of the way and hiked out the rest. All in all, we spent about 9 hours and 30 minutes hiking/climbing and probably about 15-30 minutes skiing. Yeah, it's a pretty silly thing to do, but you know the adage - "earn your turns". Back to Brettl-Hupfers for some apres-ski. Minor results: we embarassed the Bretts by destroying them in several games of flip cup, drank a handle of whiskey, drank a bottle of Bacardi O, Corey hooked up with the 29 year old again, Vern wore a sombrero, and I wore a beanie with a propellor. Major result (everything in life pales in comparison to what we witnessed): a forty-something two-tone femullet who could dance like Michael Jackson. I took only one picture because I knew no other could ever be better. There are very few words that can describe what we saw so I will leave you to search through the pictures to find the treasure. Her amazing liquid movements and flowing mane held us all in a state of awe which seemed sempiternal. Steve had very special feelings for her, that is, Lady Linda of the Dance.

That's plenty.

Words of the Day
compulsory - required by rule: mandatory (like drinking after skiing)
variegated - having a variety of colors: varicolored
alacrity - liveliness and eagerness: briskness
quip - a witty saying: epigram, wisecrack ("all your base are belong to us", actually, that's not very witty, just bad English, whatever)
satyr - a man with strong sexual desires: lecher

2004-04-12T10:50:00.000-04:00

Back from the Ravine. Ridiculous. This weekend was awesome and I can't have imagined a better way to celebrate Easter (besides going to church of course, HA!). I will merely wet your appetites with a few keywords/phrases and tomorrow I shall sate them with a full description and posted pictures: Brettl-Hupfers, Vern, disaster, co-ed fraternity for adults, vomit, Chet, cutting slow, ice, Rainman, flipcup, and Lady Linda of the Dance (one picture provides sole evidence that there is a God).

Other than that there's not much else to report. You all should check out this site. If you input your location it will show you what stars you can see and things like that. However, I'm not sure you many of you are familiar with the Iridium satellite phone system, but this site tracks their path around the globe. Their particular design basically makes them giant mirrors and they are constantly reflecting the sun onto the earth's surface. It's called an "iridium flare". What I'm trying to get at is you can input your location and the site will tell you when and how to actually see one of these flares. Apparently you can even see them during that day. How cool is that!? You can actually "see" a satellite that is orbiting the earth miles and miles away.

I would like to point out that the "outsourcing scare" is a twisted hypocrisy. How can we possibly be the leading capitalist nation and be worried about outsourcing. If it helps companies operate more efficiently then it should be supported. I'm not saying I'm a supporter, but I am pointing out the hypocrisy. For an American (or a media agent) to say that he or she does not support outsourcing is simply an oxymoron. Buffoonery!

I actually did catch part of an episode of the "The L-Word" a few weeks ago. It's very dramatic and rather engrossing. The lesbian sex is just a bonus. From what I saw, I would also recommend it.

Words of the Day
reticence - the trait of being uncommunicative: reserve, taciturnity
deference - respect and esteem due to an elder or superior: honor
dour - stubbornly unyielding: dogged, tenacious, grim
byre - barn for cows (of the livestock variety, alpha phi would not be a proper synonym)
myopic - lacking forsight, also being literelly nearsighted

2004-04-08T08:45:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally figured out the Samba server so I could access my windows pc on my linux machine. Unfortunately it was at 7:30am this morning so I didn't have time to put the pictures on the site. However, you can now go to dumbbox.dyndns.org and see that I actually do have a server running (I wasn't lying this whole time). And so far, I haven't payed a dime for anything. You too can have a free dns like me, just go here, and go here for a free webserver (apache). I should mention that the muzackShare script is working well, but it's only using a few test directories right now. I'll put the real music on there today or Sunday, along with the pictures.

My face still hurts from the egg thing.

I'm heading up to the Tuckerman Ravine this weekend for some skiing and hiking. It looks like the final tally is Steve B, Ian M, Ashley P, Murch, Murch's gf, Kirk and myself. "Apparently" Vern will be meeting us up there with some friends. Any of you up in Troy are welcome to come as well. I do have extra gear and we will be leaving early Friday morning. Here for Tuckerman's weather and general info. Here for the Tuckerman's community and even more info.

A final link for everyone's enjoyment: Jimmy. I will warn you that Jimmy went to RPI. He graduated sometime in the mid 80s. Jimmy is a brilliant individual (a BS in Math and CompSci and an MS in CompSci in four years at the 'Tute and then onto Yale, as I understand it) and he knows everything about everything. The website (especially the master "Links" page) has a wealth of information and you will certainly enjoy his incessant ranting.

Words of the Day
ardent - characterized by intense emotion: fervent, impassioned (rossi...about everything - I made him leave the table while playing quarters last weekend because I bounced a quarter into his white russian right after he asked everyone not to, ha!)
baleful - deadly or sinister: baneful, menacing
depredation - an act of plundering/pillaging/marauding: ravage (think pirates, yarrr!)
carte blanche ['kärt-'blänsh, -'blänch] - full descretionary power
petulant - easily irritated or annoyed: cranky, peevish

2004-04-07T15:12:00.000-04:00

"'Course it's a good idea!"

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!

If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!

How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

2004-04-07T11:08:00.000-04:00

Talk about cool things over electrical lines: broadband over power lines.

2004-04-07T10:39:00.000-04:00

Haha! Many have followed suit. It's great see all those wonderful blogs.

Yesterday in a rather unflattering display of stupidity I detonated an egg on my face. It was terrible. I will convey the story so you do not make the same mistake. Having returned home from work I put on some boiling water for a few delicious hard-boiled eggs. One was bigger than the other and somewhat undercooked after the boiling was done. Unfortunately I poured the water out so I couldn't submerge it again. So...what's the next best thing? The microwave. I nuked the larger egg (after eating the smaller) for 30 seconds and removed a thoroughly cooked and firm egg. Unable to contain myself I immediately bit into it and, then, all I remember is a flash of yellow and white and then a nasty burning sensation in my mouth and on my lips. I'm not exactly sure of the science behind it, but the egg exploded. Luckily I had my glasses on or else I could've had my eyes scourged out by congealed yolk pellets. Needless to say, I was in such pain from the burning I spent the next 3 hours with a cup of cold water up to my mouth. Today my upper lip is numb and I should hope the feeling returns.

I did get the DSL working and hopefully I can have the webserver up with pictures this evening. I had to call tech support while doing it because the louts left out part of the instructions. They had to deal with constant slurping, swallowing and groaning as I had the cup to my face the whole while I was the phone. Serves them right. Check back here for an IP later in the day.

I was going to provide a link to Bush's Burea of Faith-Based Weights and Measurements (as well as a rant) but it seems it no longer exists. Big surprise. He was going to try and bring back measurements like the cubit, bath, and shekel for federal buildings. Whatever happen to the idea of secularism? Whatever. The Bureau went over like a lead zeppelin (as the saying goes).

Words of the Day
unsullied - splotlessly clean and fresh: stainless, untainted (ie. not Sully)
apostate - not faithful to religion or cause: deserter, renegade
acquiesce - to agree or express agreement: assent, accede
bonhomie ["bä-n&-'mE, "bO-] - a disposition to be friendly and approachable: affability, geniality
rapt - deeply moved: enraptured, captive, absorbed

2004-04-06T11:23:00.000-04:00

Several fun links today for your enjoyment.

I was reminded of the first after having read Andy's "Testimonial" of Craig ("soulless capitalist") on Friendster (and also having read "The Lexus and Olive Tree"). Oliver had shown me the following clip but I was rather inebriated at the time (in Montreal, of course) and did not recall until viewing the testimonial. It turns out Thomas Friedman isn't such a iniquitous dick afterall (don't get me wrong, the book was great, anyone interested in owning a business at some point in our future should read it): Rumsfeld is an asshole. Geez, here I go busting on Rumsfeld again...oh well.

The second is an excellent source of streaming, electronic music: di.fm. If you're behind a firewall the winamp stream won't work, but the windows media player will.

The third is an oddly humorous video produced by an Quebecois musician named Mononc Serge ("My Uncle Serge"). It's about killer potatos and has a catchy refrain: 'C'est bon la patate' ("The potato is good"). The song it thought to be about home-made poutine and the danger of the potato. Poutine will indeed kill after years of regular consumption. This particular video resulted in a great deal of screaming and shouting of the refrain in the streets of Montreal on one particularly late night. Someone then called someone a "Hebe", Oliver pretended to be Jewish and took a rather vocal offence, and we nearly were destroyed by a bunch of middle eastern 'madmen'. Anyway go to the site and click on "Les Patates" and watch the video (the others are hysterical as well). Enjoy.

Words of the Day
congenital - present at birth but not necessarily hereditary: innate, inherent
histrionic - characteristic of acting or stage performance: melodramatic
pediment - a triangular gable between a horizontal entablature and a sloping roof
chimera [kI-'mir-&, k&-] - grotesque product of the imagination (unfortunately, our president is not a chimera)
ectoplasm - substance supposed to emanate from the body of a medium during a trance (depending, of course, on your definition of "trance")

2004-04-05T11:52:00.000-04:00

After our Sunday lunch at Panera I have decided to join Friendster. Upon enquiring "What's Friendster?", the great shame I felt from a roundtable of groans and headshaking has convinced me I should probably sign up. So expect (and accept) an email asking for "Friend" confirmation on my behalf.

2004-04-05T08:40:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Corey, Mike, and Nate for putting up with me this weekend. If I were any of you I would charge me...I think. C-day was glorious and thanks to Aaron and the actives for hosting such an epic event. Pictures will be posted in a day or two (there are 51 thanks to Craig's and Andra's snapping). Check back here for instructions.

Interesting website of the day: RobitsWillKill. I believe you Arch-E types will enjoy this the most. It's kind of a website for "street" artists to post their work (and, inadvertently, incriminate themselves), but most of it has a RobotsWillKill motif (whatever that is). Two weekends ago, while in NYC, I had taken a picture of an RWK sticker that happened to be near me in a bar. Waking the next morning and discovering the picture sparked my interest, hence the link...enjoy.

Here's a new thing, Words of the Day (you can figure out the part of speech for yourself):
idiosyncrasy - a structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group
voluble - marked by steady flow of speech (ahem...Corey)
promulgate - to state or announce
paean (pean) - a fervent expression of joy or praise
circuitous - being or taking a roundabout course (like, say, Rumsfeld's speech-google 2003 "Foot in Mouth Award" for more info)

2004-04-02T12:30:00.000-05:00

Al Franken is doing the first "liberal" talk radio show ever. Of course, ClearChannel and such companies won't touch him (they support scum like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh), but AirAmerica has picked him up. You can listen at noon online here on AirAmerica.

2004-03-29T18:25:00.000-05:00

We're finally getting DSL at home so I can put the webserver online for good. What does that mean for you? You can finally get access to all my wonderful music (about 27GB at this point). I expect it to be online in a week or so. I'll be sure to keep you informed.

2004-03-28T20:55:00.000-05:00

Here's the multi-word dictionary lookup I was talking about: http://www.tomgroves.net/projects/vocabtool/.

2004-03-28T20:36:00.000-05:00

I'm doing this temporarily just to get in the habit until I have my own webserver running (which shouldn't be too long now and you will then have access to all my wonderful music). Kudos to Craig for making the suggestion and I hope you all follow suit (www.blogger.com). I could write forever here, but the idea of blogs is to be short and sweet I suppose.

Just to start out, some of my favorite most recent reads(which, of course, I strongly recommend) are: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken (nonfiction-political/humor), Zen and the Art of Motocycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (nonfiction-philosophy), A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (nonfiction-science/history), and The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (fiction-philosophy).

Tripp's Terse Book Review: Lies-liberal propaganda, very funny, informative, rage-inspiring (at times); Zen-new age philosophy, challenges Aristotle/Socrates classic views, expressed through a journey of a man and his son; History-humorous, well written, modern history of mankind squeezed into 500 pages, everybody should read this book; and Verses-more metaphysics and value examination told through a strange story of two Indian men and their near death experience, Rushdie is a beautiful writer and keep a dictionary near by for this one.

I have many other interesting items but I'll put them up in pieces over time so as not to overwhelm.