100th post

The holidays aren't really the right time for blogging, so here's a little bit of what all has been going on:

-I went bowling last week for the first time in a year or so; I really sucked it up.
-Then I did some other stuff.
-I got white Racing Jackets and lime green Pumas for Christmas.
-Hope everyone had a good Christmas too and happy New Year!

I PASSED CALCULUS!!!!11!

YAY!!

Oh, and I got an "A" in all of my other classes, but honestly that doesn't excite me nearly as much as the "D" I got in calculus! Wierd, eh?

Been home for a couple days, it's nice. The parties start tomorrow!

Youtube comments make me laugh

Here's one I found on a Buckethead video a couple minutes ago:

"shut up fag.... he knows how to play stuff ur mom wil never know how to even if she learns for like a million years.......same with u.....loll"

If that isn't amazing, then I don't know what is.

This is Scary.

I've been studying for my calculus exam for most of the day, and now that I kinda understand it, I think it's kinda cool. I'm still going to be happy to not have to deal with it any more (hopefully) though.

In other news, moving out of studio is sad. But, I get to move right back in to another one in a month! Yay!

Oh! and I get $25 from the government for travelling to Europe two years ago. That is pretty cool.

Going home wednesday!

Check out this pimpin' ride I saw last time I was in Dallas:


And it's been a while, so here is a RANDOM QUOTE OF THE DAY!!

"It could be, like, a circular cylinder!"
-Some guy in Potbellies

Midnight

I just put my mouse on the time down at the bottom of my computer to see what day it was, and it came up as "Saturday, Dec. 15." That completely freaked me out, because it's supposed to be friday - I thought I had lost a day somewhere and was really behind in the stuff I need to do this weekend. Then I realized it was midnight, so yeah, it would say saturday because it kinda is now.

Final #1

I'm done with it! If I had to guess, I would think I got somewhere in the 80s. But I really don't know...

This is from the "campus watch" crime email thing:
SW7, 2617 Speedway

Suspicious Activity: A UT Police Officer observed an unknown black-masked subject scratching at several loose shingles located on the roof of the SW7 building. The officer watched as the unknown subject wiggled and squeezed his way through a small hole in the roof. The police officer set up a perimeter and began searching the building for the unauthorized invader. After an exhausting search, the officer was unable to locate the unknown subject. The officer described the unknown invader as: 18" to 20" in height, 25 to 30 pounds. The subject was last seen wearing a striped tail, and fur lined toe socks. Occurred on: 12-13-07, at 1:00 AM.
--------------------

Seems like it's getting pretty dangerous around here.

Recently

I went home friday afternoon. That was all good and stuff. Then I came back yesterday for the dirt derby, well, and the final I have to take tomorrow... Anyway, people really need to learn how to drive. When the speed limit is 70, it is not the time to get in the left lane and go 40. Even if you are passing the person in the right lane going 35. They shouldn't be on the highway in the first place.

Oh, and those white lines at angles, you're supposed to park at the same angle as them, not perpindicular to the curb:


In other news, the dirt derby went good. I could tell I had been driving all day when my legs started saying "no more" after the first two laps. I had to give in and slow down a little, but I still got 5th, which I think is my best finish so far.

Right when we were leaving the cold front blew in. For a while it was raining so hard I couldn't see the stripes on the road.

Well, time to play guitar hero study.

The last few days...

The first semester is almost over. Everything is starting to wind down...

Final projects in architecture were due earlier this week. All that is left to do with architecture at all is to take pictures of things before class on friday.

I had my final tests last thursday and yesterday. They both went pretty good.

There is a band audition tomorrow. I think I'll do alright.

Then I'm going home for the weekend. I haven't decided for sure about the weekend after that though. I might end up just staying here for a couple extra days. We'll see.

Less than 48 hours

The deadline is closing in...

I had a good RANDOM QUOTE OF THE DAY!!, but I can't remember it any more.

I'm going to bed now, and then studio. Yay!

Sunday night is approaching way too fast.
And I just cut the same square of basswood wrong for the third time.

eebqefbqegibpqebvi qeipur;bhqeipuviqeb iperubgvqeij vqeipbgqiuebgipqeubfvriu39ubgr39b

8:00 pm, Sunday, December 2nd

The final projects in architecture are due.
THATS LESS THAN A WEEK PEOPLE!!


And now, for the RANDOM QUOTE OF THE DAY!!

"No, it isn't snowing, but I swear, it would be if it started raining."
-Some girl talking on the phone

Umm, it was, like, 45 degrees outside. Last time I checked it has to be somewhere around... what is it? Like, 32 degrees? Maybe? So that the rain can freeze and turn into snow? Good call there.

I'm back

Well, after a few days of not getting to do anywhere close to everything I wanted to, I'm back to Austin and in the process of unpacking everything. I suppose i'll have to get caught up on all of my Dallas activities winter break. Which is already less than two weeks away. Well, except for finals... I'll have to come back down here a couple times after break "starts." Whatever...

I wonder if my cheese is still any good. I should probably check that out. It should be.

Anyway, score two for black friday shopping! A $50 jacket and a $50 pair of jeans - I paid a total of $30!

And then on my way back here I saw a van on fire in the middle of the median!

I decided that to bring a little something else into the blog, and maybe to help me update it more often, I'm going to introduce a section that goes along with every update. Yes, that's right! I'm going to have (you guessed it!) a RANDOM QUOTE OF THE DAY!! Possibly with, but maybe without additional commentary, which will be added as I see fit.

As for the inagural RANDOM QUOTE OF THE DAY!!

"This sign says what to do if the elevator stops working while you're inside it. That leads me to wonder what you should do while the elevator stops working while you aren't inside it..."

-Some old guy in the elevator

We all just looked at him like he was stupid. I think that was very fitting.

Going Home Early!

The Dirt Derny got cancelled tonight, so I don't have to wait until the morning to go home!

t-minus about 2 hours

33 hours, 49 minutes

That is the amount of time left before I begin driving home. It's gonna be crazy.

In other news, my flip flops just died on my way back from studio. I guess I'll have to manage wearing shoes until friday.

33.48
It keeps going down!

Comparisons

What the roomate did today:
-Woke up
-Ate breakfast
-Sat on his bed and used the computer
-Ate lunch
-Sat on his bed and used the computer
-Ate dinner
-Sat on his bed and used the computer
-Went to bed

What I did today:
-Woke up
-Took a shower
-Ate breakfast
-Went to studio
-Came back and had lunch
-Used the computer
-Went riding with a friend
-Came back to the dorm
-Took another shower
-Went to a sold out concert and found someone with an extra ticket
-Saw The Almost
-Saw The Starting Line
-Saw Paramore
-Came back to the dorm
-Ate dinner
-Used the computer
-Went to studio
-Came back to the dorm
-Used the computer
-About to go to sleep

I keep trying to figure out how I seem to be able to squeeze so much more into a day than most people can. Maybe time moves slower for me or something? I don't know, but it is quite nice to be able to do so much more than other people can.

Enough existentialism; the concert that I mentioned was really good (also not that it took up five hours of my day between finding a ticket and seeing all the bands), I'm happy that Andrew insisted that I go to it.

Well, I have class in seven hours, so I'm gong to bed.

It Rained Today

Guess which side of the room is mine:



Meanwhile, in arhitecture:

The Weather

It was pretty chilly this morning. Especially at 6:45 when I walked to studio to work on some stuff before class started. It was early too. But mostly cold. And Appearantly it is supposed to get colder tomorrow, warm up a little for the weekend, and then get down to like, freezing by Thanksgiving?! I'm kind of excited for this; it's been hot for way too long.

I need new flip flops.
That was really random.
But stuff is on sale next friday! Yay fighting crowds at the mall!! Also, yay for getting to start on Christmas shopping! 39 days as of today!

Oh! And I need to help the AJ pick out a new truck too! More excitement!

I'm going to read my architecture book some, then fall asleep, then wake up, then go to studio, then lunch and band, and then do other stuff! Woo!

Just got back from the dirt derby. It was pretty good. I have to take a shower then finish writing a paper. Yay...

I talked people into doing back to back road and mountain bike rides on saturday. It's going to be awesome.

2a.m.

The roomate suddenly jumped out of bed and ran out of the room. Eventually I heard the fire alrms in the hallways going off (the ones in the rooms were not) and grabbed my keys and a shirt before I headed downt he stairs. Then we got to stand around outside for about 45 minutes before we could head back in. I was one of the last people back, and I realized that the elevators would be really busy on the first floor, and alot of people would try to be smart and go to the ground floor to get an elevator were there would be "less people." I decided to be really smart and go to the 2nd floor to catch an empty elevator on it's way down to where all the people were. That was a good call.

It turns out someone playing with a ball in the hallway hit the fire alarm and set it off.

I hate you, playing-with-ball-at-2am-person. *Shakes fist*

Project 4.1

Your final project should be considered a summation of the excercises that you have worked on throughout the semester. The issues introduced and explored using a heretofore abstract spatial and tectonic language will be reconsidered in a more concrete and substantive context with the introduction of absolute scale and program.

Program:
- An archival space of +/-400 sq. ft. with a room for one person to study what is being archived.
- An exterior space for a group of people to gather.
- A path (itinerary) that demonstrates an organizational logic and establishes relationships between and within the surrounding context and the construction(s).

You should be able to identify four "moments" (points of particular importance) in your project. One should be a point of entry (negotiating inside/outside); (at least) one should be a threshold (a "between" space that mediates between up and down, light and dark, inside and out); the other(s) may be particular to your project.

You may dig into the site (to a maximum depth of 10', but the material that is removed must be relocated elsewhere (it may be broken up). You may carve into, or through, the wall, but it cannot be removed or relocated (it must remain intact). Thea rchive does not necessarily have to incorporate the wall.

Light is an implicit constituent of each oft he programmatic spaces. It should also be considered in the design of your path.

Please keep in mind:

The program is given, but the results should reflect your intent.

The location of the wall somewhere on your site begins to shift the site from an anonymous undifferentiated plane to a landscape with specific spatial implications. Depending on its position, it first bisects the site either N-S or E-W; it may also suggest a point of entry, orient the inhabitant, interrupt the view, or cast a shadow that may further divide the site into light and dark. These implications are something you should be aware of and respond to; to literally build on.

The introduction of an enclosure immediatly distinguishes inside from out and the walls that delimit the enclosure serve to both unite and divide the space on either side. Consider what is being brought inside (progammatically) and what is being excluded. Openings provide points of connection (visual or physical) between the two realms.

To dig into the earth is to simultaneously merge with the context (the earth) and remve yourself from it.

To build up is the reverse: it is to simultaneously remove yourself from the earth, but connect with the surrounding space.

Classes

Filled out my schedule for next semester this morning:

-Architecture Studio
-Visual Communications
-History of Architecture 1
-Band
-Intro to Astronomy

I was going to do psycology and get my social science out of the way, but for whatever reason I couldn't get into the class. Hence, I am taking astronomy and completing my natural science instead! Yay.

As for my current classes, I got my calculus test back today... and, lets just leave it at this is the one that will be dropped when my final grade is calculated. This sucks mainly because I thought I understood what was going on. Apparently not so much.

And in design today, we got the first part of our final project. I'm not sure where it's going, but we have to make a rectangle of a certain size, and put a rectangular wall of a certain size on it, then repeat a few times. Everyone's will be exactly the same except for where the walls are placed.

"This is the type of thing you enter in a design contest, and win."

A direct quote from my architecture professor. It seems that he really likes my wall.

I think the final piece count was 350, but I might be a couple off - late last night wasn't the best time for me to be doing math.

In other news,

Guitar Hero III is pretty cool. Except that I can't beat Cult of Personality for some reason. Whatever, I can try again in 16 days when I'm home for Thanksgiving.

And the white squirrel count is now up to 9. Seeing two today should hopefully help out with my calculus test tomorrow... Speaking of, I need to study some...

Make That 288

Turned out I needed some moer pieces. I imagine it will go up again before I'm done too...

White squirrel sightings are now up to 7!

And... I'm getting ready to go home until sunday night!

Two Hundred and Forty

That really didn't seem to be that big of a number. At least until I had to cut that many rectangles out of chipboard anyway... I wish I had a picture of the pile, but of course I forgot to take one. In order to make up for that I will post another picture instead:

Yay awesome Halloween costume!


Yesterday was so crazy.

Me and Bo went to the Wind Ensemble concert, which was quite impressive. Then we ate, put on costumes, and went down to 6th street to meet a bunch of other people. We got there and joined the crowd. Of like 8000 other people. There isn't much exaggeration there, in fact, there might not be any at all, I'm not quite sure though. It was insane.

I started to list some of the best costumes, but it was taking too long to describe some of them, so whatever. It's something that is much better if you actually experiaence it anyway.

Pain

Wow, that title really makes this sound like it is going to be some super emo emotional pain thing post. But I'm talking about true physical pain here.

Story time:

So, I finished some models in architecture today:



And decided I didn't want to go back to my room at 7:00. I needed something to do though, and looking around my desk, I discovered wooden sticks, string, glue, and newspaper. Know what that's a recipe for? You guessed it: A KITE!!!



Only problem being that somewhere in the construction process, my box cutter decided to make an attempt at removing the end of my finger:



We were out of band-aids in the studio so I had to walk across the street to CVS to buy some. The lady behind the register thought it was rather amusing that I was buying band-aids when she saw I had a paper towel taped onto my finger and a bunch of dried blood on my palm.

Then on my way back a couple guys asked if I wanted to buy some weed. I turned them down. One guy truned to the other and said "dude. We're in Austin. Why can we not find anyone that smokes?!"

Yay!

Guitar Hero Three comes out on Sunday, which makes me super excited!! Too bad it will be in Dallas instead of here...

That half brings me to my next point anyway: there is about a 93% chance* that I'll be coming home the first weekend in November!

*The math:
100% chance
-33% chance that we will have a project due in architecture on monday
+20% chance that I'll have enough time to do it anyway, since I could get back reasonably early Sunday night.
+10% chance - Bo wants to go back that weekend too, and needs a ride
-4% chance that he will end up not being able to go

On a side note:
Congratulations to the GEB for their 56th? straight "1" rating at the UIL marching competition!!

Here and There

It was very nice to get back home this weekend:
-I got to see people I haven't seen in a long time
-I didn't have to worry about school (even though I did have to finish an architecture project at home)
-Me and Willis beat Jordan on expert co-op (I played the guitar part!!)
-I got to watch 3 movies. I can't even remember the last movie I saw before that...
-In one day I drove from Dallas to Houston to Austin

And now I'm back here, thinking that Thanksgiving break is a long time from now. I don't think I can make it that long without visiting again.

I had an ok racing weekend. 8th in the short track, 10th-ish in the cross country, and I'm really tired now, so I'm going to bed. Good night.

Fall Is Here

Or something like that. At least in the mornings maybe, its a little cooler than it has been...

Anyway, I just got back from a Saosin concert. It was rather good. I walked into my room and I was like "man, I'm hungry; I'm going to make a sandwich."


Here's the project I just finished in architecture:

These


Turn into this


Amazing, eh?

The Sucks

Me and Chris drove out to preride the Bryan course today. Maybe it's just me, but I thought the trail really sucked. The old stuff was fine, but none of the new trail flowed and it was mostly too tight to carry any speed through, and the course was rediculously long for the type of terrain it's on. Hopefully they'll shorten our race before next week. Otherwise I'm not looking forward to the race all that much.

The Golden Chick in wherever it was in the middle of nowhere that we stopped at isn't nearly as good as the one back home. The chicken itself was good, but everthin else pretty much sucked.

Know what else sucks?
YOUR MOM!
(But that is gross to think about...)

Sandwich

So after riding today I went to whole foods withyhe intention of just buying some fruit. Not much of it really looked that good though, so I ended up buying all the ingredients for pretty much the most awesome sandwich ever.

-Bread
-Turkey
-Swiss Cheese
-Avocado
-BBQ sauce

+ a pear to go with it.

I got back to my room and started putting it together. My avocado isn't ripe yet. I was mad, but nevertheless I made a sandwich without the avocado. It was good, but not nearly as good as it could have been. Whatever, it should be ready soon. It better be.


In other news, the UT v. OU game is on right now, the teams are tied at half time.

Oh, and I saw some homeless guy get hit by a truck this morning.

This Morning

I woke up this morning and saw my roomate eating breakfast. The last week or so he's been having pudding and cookies for breakfast, but today he decided to step it up a notch and throw a pint of ice cream into the mix.

The End

The last crit of the year. Not really saying much since I only did three of them, but still. And I got dropped. It was a sucky way to end my road season for the year, but for some concellation, there were several pros in my race - Pat McCarty, for example - and they are, well, a wee bit faster than I am. Congrats to Fawley for pulling off the win!

Looking back on road racing this year, I didn't really do a lot of it. I remember Tour of new Braunfels early in the year, it was the first time I had ridden on my Zipps. I did pretty good. Then Pace Bend. That was possibly my second best road race ever. After that, I don't really remember doing much road riding at all until Crit Weekend, which pretty much sucked, but since it was all for training, it wasn't too bad. The road nationals. Yay not dieing in the road race, and then having pretty much the best crit in the history of the universe!!

Then the couple of crits down here, and thats about it. So even with a bad ending, overall that is actually pretty good. I'm looking forward to next year, as I will hopefuuly be able to train over the winter.

Tomorrow

Is my first test.

And the last Driveway Crit of the year.

Guess which one I'm more excited about!! (It's a puzzle, like such as.)

Dirt Derby

I really didn't do so bad.

In Other News

In other news:
I have a riding partner from school now, and Andrew's last race is this weekend, so pretty soon I'll have another.

In other news:
My first major project in architecture studio has been turned in. It may not seem like it, but a LOT of work went into making this... thing...



In other news:
UT lost a football game today, putting us at 4 and 1. It's amazing how differant it feels to walk around after a loss. Hopefully everything is back to normal soon.

Luck

Most people know already know it, but I'm a big time believer in the whole optimism/luck thing. This being said, I'm pretty sure that today included the most amazing proof that this works.

Last night after the crit I got back to the parking garage and started unloading my stuff. About half way through the process I noticed that my sunglasses had fallen onto the floorboard and decided it would be wise to move them so my car didn't get broken into. I finished unloading and went up to my room. When I got there I realized I hadn't brought my sunglasses with me, nor could I remember where I had ended up moving them to. Normally I would have gone back to check to make sure I hadn't done something stupid, but last night I really needed to get to finishing my architecture project, so I chose to rush off and do that, hoping for the best that no one woud break into my car to get my sunglasses.

Tonight, about 25 hours later, I went to my car to move it to the other garage, since there is a home game this weekend. When I got there and got out of my car, I found my sunglasses sitting on the roof of my car where I had left them.

The current time is 2:26 a.m.

I just got back to my dorm after six hours in the studio.

Yay for finishing major projects!

Woo Lists!!

Things I have done since the long lost time of my last blog:

-Architecture stuff
-Driven home
-Went to a Muse concert
-Driven back to Austin on a monday morning. In time to be early for my 10:00 class
-Architecture stuff
-Saw Grindhouse
-Turned in my first college paper. I got an 88 yay!
-Driven home
-Then to Smithville
-Then to Austin because I left my mountain bike shoes at home
-Bought new mountain bike shoes
-Then back to Smithville
-Then back to Austin
(That was a busy saturday)
-Raced my first collegiete mountain bike race, did ok
-Architecture stuff
-Did a road ride on my mountain bike. That will be a fun story for tomorrow's edition of my blog

And I have a pictures and stories and stuff, but those will have to wait as I'm about to go see The Last Vegas.

Home (phones)

Let's start with thursday:

Wednesday night I hung out with Andrew and Fawley. They convinced me to race the crit on thursday. I did. Suprisingly after three weeks without riding I pulled of a top ten finish (read: tenth) in the 3/4 race. Seems walking about a mile a day isn't too bad for excercise.

Friday I drove home, got all hyper listening to music while driving for four hours, got home, chilled with the parentals for a few minutes, then went to go see all the band people at a football game. Being all hyper from the driving made that even more crazy! Seeing people, blah blah blah everyone tells me to come to the after party, so I acquiesce and go for further chillage.

After more seeing people, I get a phone call, which brings me to the start of the main point of this blog: it says Private Caller, and since I don't know who it is, I ask who wants to answer my phone for me. Jackie grabs it and says "Allo? You have wrong number, please call again later" and hangs up.

Now lets analyze that sentance. Why would you tell someone to call back if they have a wrong number? Hmm. I still don't know who it was, so hopefully it was nothing important...

Anyway, that brings me to today. Fast forward through eating breakfast with the parentals, watching mTV, and eating lunch. Alright, now I'm chilling with people again. Fast forward some more... Jackie gets a text from Zhilwan that none of us quite know what to think of, or how to respond to. Since she answered my phone last night, she agrees to let me take care of that message for her. The entire conversation* follows (my part is in bold):

"Hey sexy beast, what's up?"
"Who dis is? How u get my numba? Ima call da cops on u!!"
"Chill out Jackie; it's Zhilwhan."
"Who dis Jaky is? How u get my numba bitch? Da pigs is on dey way!"
--After about on hour we decide I should let him know it was me--
"Just kidding about the cops. It's Kyle by the way."
"Haha."
--A few hours later--
"Hey Kyle when you said the cops were coming, a cop came into the store right after I got the text."

*Most punctuation, grammer, and spelling has been edited for ease in reading / making sense of the conversation.

BURNiNATION!!1

The Weekend
Saturday:
8:30 - Wake up and take shower
9:30 - Begin working on projects in architecture studio
12:00 - Finish 2 out of 3 simutaneous projects, decide the 3rd can wait until next week


12:40 - Go to lunch with people from the other studio I've never met before
12:45 - Discover Chik-fil-a is closed, go to Wendy's instead
1:15 - go back to studio and brag about being done
1:50 - Meet Bo to play Guitar Hero
2:40 - Get bored and go to toy store, buy the most insane thing ever!!

3:30 - Meet the Bud Light Girls at 7-11. But we aren't 21 so we can't get free hats ) :
3:50 - Play more Guitar Hero
6:15 - Turn on the UT/TCU game since we couldn't get tickets
7:20 - Get food and move to Bo's room to finish watching the game
7:50 - Start browsing the interwebs, and only periodically check the score
9:45 - Sara comes over after the game is over
10:05 - Paul calls (he came down from TCU with the band and is staying the night) so we can meet him
10:30 - We find Paul and go back to Bo's room
10:40 - Obviously, finding a party is the correct course of action
11:00 - Start walking to West Campus; after numerous phone calls we discover the only party is at BXO, the asian frat. But it's "casual" so we can all go...
11:20 - Partake in party-like activities
Sunday:
12:50am - Leave party to go somewhere
12:55am - Sara decides queso and pancakes sound good, so we head towards to Kerbey Lane Cafe
1:25am - Amazing queso and pancakes ensue
2:00am - We walk Sara back to her dorm, then head off to ours
2:15am - We run into some upperclassmen, and have a competition to see who can get the radar speed detector thing to read the highest by running down the street. I tie for second with 14mph
2:30am - Bedtime
7:30am - I wake up and decide to sleep more
10:00 - I wake up, take a shower and do calculus homework
12:30 - I go to Andrew's to get a copy of his house key
1:30 - I get back and chill in my room
2:40 - I call Bo and we decide to meet at the co-op in about 30 minutes
2:45 - I decide I really want a muffin, and go to get one. There aren't any at the store downstairs or at the CVS by the co-op. But I really want a muffin, so I go to 7-11.
3:20 - I get my muffin, and it is an awesome first meal of the day. Bo calls to see where I am and we meet half way between the two places
3:30 - Me and Bo chill / eat pizza / whatever
8:30 - Bo leaves and I watch youtube videos
12:00 - Bedtime, I have classes at 8:00 in the morning... whoo...

Two Stories That Don't Deserve Thier Own Blog

Yet, put together, they work quite good!

#1
This morning I got in the elevator to go downstairs. Some girl already on it was saying how she hoped it would be cold today, since she had a sweater on. It's summer, and we're in Texas. For some reason I think there is almost no chance of it being cold. Hmmm...

#2
Walking around looking at seats in architecture today, one of the girls I don't know said "wow, it's hot - I wish I hadn't worn this sweater..." It was not the girl I saw in the elevator.

Cool Things

Well, my computer now has sound again. No idea how, as nothing I did ever seemed to help. But whatever, it's quite nice.

I downloaded this awesome program that you would never know I had unless I told you: if you're typing something, but you hold the space bar down while you're typing letters, the keybaord is mirrored. Like, if I hit the 'q' I type a 'q' but if i hold space and hit 'q' I type a 'p'
Like I said, it's awesome.

Final cool thing: my group in architecture finished our seat four days before it's due! Compared to other groups that haven't even started yet, it's nice to be done and not have to worry about it.

Here it is


See, it works too!


Hey! That's not butter!

Kindergarten

So today I spent about six hours playing with cardboard; playing meant to mean cutting, assembling, dissasembling, folding, reassembling, etc. About the time I started thinking "wow, this really feels like kindergarten, not college" one of the girls in my group said "wow, this is just like kindergarten, but with sharp objects." Too bad we didn't get to cut the string ourselves back in the days of making necklaces out of noodles, because then it would be the same thing all over again. Except with no necklaces. Or noodles. You know what I mean.

Also "awesome" is that only three hours of this work was actually during a "class." Everything I heard about architecture seems to be true: I was in the building from 9-5, for my 10-1 class.

Now I'm going to go move my car to another parking garage so it doesn't get towed tonight. Then i have absolutely nothing to do. Until tomorrow at nine, when there's more architecture work to do. Awesome.

Keys

Second day of classes. Not too bad, but we haven't really done any work yet either...

I got the keys to the architecture buildings / studios today, so my key ring is uber big now. I can't imagine what will happen if I end up getting keys to the music building too. Speaking of that, auditions were today, and given that I always suck during auditions, I didn't quite as bad as I normally do. Especially considering I barely new the music... Results are going to be posted tomorrow; hopefully my Albino Squirrel pays off ( :

Tech Support

Last night my laptop suddenly forgot that it has built in speakers, and now refuses to produce any sounds except for an occasional error beep that happens for absolutely no reason...

Anywho, I tried getting it to work by myself, but failing in that endeavor, I resorted to calling tech support.

My call was outsourced to India (read: the lady who took my call didn't speak or understand English). It really wasn't too bad until she asked for my email. I spelled out p-u-n-k-k-i-d-@-c-u-s-t-o-m-p-o-o-l-c-a-r-e.com She repeated back b-u-k-d-@c-u-s-t-m-m-p-u-c-e.com and asked if that was right. I said no and told her again. She asked if me or anyone in my household would like to subscribe to HP's monthly newsletter. I hung up.

#50

7:00 - Roomate is yelling into phone in Chinese. I wake up.
10:00 - I wake up again, take a shower, and go downstairs to get something from the coffee shop
10:45 - I decide to find all of my classes.
12:45 - After two hours of walking around, it is lunch time. I call Bo, and we meet at Moe's. One of Bo's friends, Sarah, meets up with us too.
1:20 - After lunch, Sarah suggests we go to Tyler's to look at clothes. No one muys anything.
1:45 - We decide to go to the vintage clothing store instead. It is made of win, and I'll buy something there before the end of the week.
2:20 - We go to walk to some unknown location and run in to Melissa. Sarah heads off to her dorm, and the remaining three go to fimd Afsheen's dorm.
2:30 - We go chill with Afsheen and his roomate.
5:00 - Me and Bo go back to the dorm, he buys posters. We go to his room, I meet his roomate, then we go to my room to play Guitar Hero.
6:00 - Bo tells me his floor is having a "meet everyone dinner" thing, I go too.
7:00 - After meeting people from Bo's floor/building, I go play more Guitar Hero.
8:00 - I go downstairs and play dodgeball. I sucked because of the extremely large balls* but it was fun, and I plan on playing again.
10:00 - I go back to the dorm and chill.
10:50 - Typing of blog commences.
11:00 - Blog is finished.
11:30ish - Bedtime


*That's what she said.

Pictures!

Before:


After:


Note that the lack of decorations present in the room is currently in the process of being changed.

In other news, I saw an albino squirrel today! Anyone familiar with UT folklore should (hopefully) understand the signifigance of that.



Nice windsheild wipers.

Whew...

I am now completely moved in to the dorm room! It took about 28 hours, but everything is unpacked and put away. I have before and after pictures, but my camera battery is charging right now... they'll be up tomorrow.

Earlier I went to get my books from the co-op, and unexpectedly my arms were quite tired after carrying a 30 pound box about a quarter mile. Then I went back to do it again after lunch with my architecture stuff. Luckily Bo was with me, so he carried one out of 3 large/heavy bags. Then we played guitar hero.

The roomate showed up about 20 minutes ago, left to go get stuff I guess, and hasn't been back yet... I assume he'll make it here again...

Last Weekend at Home

Saturday morning Scott called and was like "hey! Wanna go to a Ben Kweller concert in Denton tonight?"
We got there and tickets were sold out, but right as we were getting ready to leave some dude came up and sold us some tickets. They had a face value of $17.50 each. We gave him $34. Do the math.
On our way home we discovered that donut stores aren't open at 2:00am. Odd.

Then Sunday, we went riding before he went back to Houston. Then my mom took me to go shopping, and ended up buying me stuff, which I was not expecting at all. THANKS MOM!!!
Oh yeah, right before we left the power had gone out... But it was back on when we got home, for about 10 minutes. We ate dinner in the dark, then at about 9:15, I convinced my them that going to a movie would be a good idea, since it's cold in theatres.We got back home at about 11:30, and the power was still off. I went to bed, and sometime between 2:00am and 6:00am they had fixed it.

Haiku

Now it is blog time.
I want it to be awesome,
But I've nothing to say.


Maybe tomorrow
I'll think of something to type.
That would be nifty.

Home

Tickets to DCI World Championships.....$85
Gas for 3000 miles of driving...................$480/4 = $120
Two hotel rooms....................................$125/4 = $31.25
Souveniers................................................$130
Food.........................................................who knows
A night in Vegas..........................................FREE!
Three nights in L.A....................................ALSO FREE!!

Spending a week away from your parents
Taking a roadtrip before college................About $400. Er... Priceless. Yeah, that's the one.

L.A.

Is pretty nifty. So far we've been to the Rose Bowl a couple times, obviously since the DCI world championships are there... Went to Venice Beach. It was NICE. Experianced frat house life first hand. Yeah, won't even go there.

Let's go to California.

OK

I've put it off long enough.

Pictures from the trip to nationals. Here they are. Finally. Yes.

Where to start? I wish we had been able to drive something this *cool*


There was alot of driving involved. Look! There's our van!


And there's some guy driving a FedEx truck!!


"What a lovely day to ride my bike down the highway..."


Does anything need to be said?


Again...


[blatent quote theft]Shut up sign, you don't tell me what to do.[/blatent quote theft]


That's fun.


Hey look! Bike racing!! On the trip to cycling nationals, what!?


Of course, that wasn't the only thing to do in Pennsylvania. (Bonus points if you know what this is.)


And then we get to Vermont:


Downhill racers are so crazy.


Almost as crazy as trials guys...


Adam Craig makes that look so easy


On the way home we didn't find any diamonds, but it wasn't for lack of trying...


Bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase "Cracker Barrel"


That pretty much covers everything that happened. Well, everything that I took pictures of anyway.
I've been home for two weeks I guess? Yeah. And getting ready to leave again already... CALIFORNIA!!
And then it's packing for college, and Austin here I come!! Woohoo!!

Wow, I haven't posted anything since i got home...

Well, it's good to be back and all that jazz. Umm, there are lots of pictures, but I really don't feel like uploading them all and finding good ones to post right now, so I'll try to have those up tomorrow or the next day...ish...

Being in the car ALL DAY is REALLY BORING.

ejobgngioagbaebgoEJATNH00iube0n.
That feels better.

The Day After

This morning I still felt really bad about quitting yesterday, but after seeing Wheel win his race, and watching the pro guys, somehow I don't feel quite as guilty. Interesting.
Anywho, I've decided that this training thing I've been attempting for the last month or so is actually worth it, so the plan is for that to keep happening, and hopefully I'll still be able to make it to races after classes start. And do good too. Can't forget about that part of the plan. I've got to train, go to races, and do good. It's been a while since that's really happened, I guess that crap I called a race yesterday would be the cause of this. Otherwise, it sure sounds good.

Like I said, Wheel is the new 13-14 men national champion. The A.J. had a bad race, but still ended up 17th... Not bad, but not anything to wrote home about either. Adam Craig won the pro race, Jeramiah Bishop got 2nd, the Seven Cycles guy finshed 3rd, JHK got 4th, and some other guy got 5th...

Driving home starts en la manana. I'll be home in 3 days. Hopefully.

Mt. Snow (post race)

Quitting a race is always dissapointing, but it's even more dissapointing when you're 2000 miles from home...

I'm thinking I might listen to Andrew and start focusing on road racing now. Yep, that sounds like a good plan.

Hopefully Wheel and The A.J. can do better than me tomorrow.

Mt. Snow (pre race)

I periodically get a working connection to the interweb in my room in Vermont. This is the first time that I've made it to blog-time, so here it is:

Going back to Sunday, the crit went really good - three corners, almost completely flat, and best of all, only one person went down (and not bad either)!! Our race was 31 laps of the mile long-ish loop, and our average speed after the finish was just under 28 mph. I finished 28 out of about 80 or so starters, which is not bad at all.

After about a 6 hour drive, we're now in Vermont, well, have been for a couple days... you know. The course here is pretty nifty cool: climb up a mountain then turn around and go back down! And, it's been raining here the last two days, but the course is pretty good in the mud. Only a coule sections aren't ridable, and they are fairly short. It's good.

My race is tomorrow, Wheel, Snow White, and The A.J. all race Saturday, and then we get to come home!

So I'm still alive ( :

7 minutes into the 91km race today, there was a nasty wreck. Like, 30-40 people going down at 50ish mph... It was nasty.

Here's an artist rendering of the race, it should help explain a little bit:

Notice the guy flying over the guard rail? That really happened. Yeah.

Luckily I didn't go down, but having to just about stop tends to make you go to the back of the pack... I stayed there for a while, but not being able to move up ended with me off the back ):
After a bit, I got with a group of six or so and worked with them. By the end of the race, that seven was down to me and one other guy. I beat him in an awesome* sprint, which put me finishing in 75th. Which given what happened, really isn't too bad for a 150 person race. I'll take that.

Now that the most important thing is out of the way, the rest of the week:
The drive here was pretty good, until we got 9 miles away and the road was closed. Yeppers, we sat in one place for 2 hours. Like, "turning the car off, getting out, and walking around," sitting in one spot. After we got here (Pennsylvania, for those who don't know) I've just sat around the hotel, riden my bike, riden my bike in the rain, and sat around the hotel some more. Awesomeness.

The crit is tomorrow ( :

Catching Up

It's been a while. Umm... first would be Palo Duro Canyon:


Good riding, nice to mountain bike some before nationals.

The change of scenery is always nice too. Gotta love driving through a big field, and then just about falling into a big hole in the ground. You know how that goes. Well, maybe not.





And there is more to it than riding too. It's hard to walk up that staircase, but well worth it.



Let's see, after that was the fourth, so let me go find some firework pictures somewhere:

Of course I went to go see a real show, but that's not nearly as cool as the place where you can go set off whatever you buy


It was practically a battlefield



Then a weekend of band at OU (which still sucks, by the way) but I won't hold that against them. Nothing too photoworthy there, but I got a couple on the drive back:

Suddenly I felt safe wearing my UT shirt


Nothing says "welcome to Texas" like DW's Adult Video store (sorry the picture isn't too good...)


But I did get to follow some guy with an uber cute dog in the back of his truck for about 70 miles


Leaving for nationals in the morning!!1