Call it Heinz

So I stopped going to Psychology class, thus eliminating my quality blogging time. My test grades have seemed to follow an interesting trend of going up the less I go to class though, so I think I'm going to stick with this plan of attack for the last couple weeks of the semester.

I had planned to make this post about spring break, the two races I've done since the last post, and some other stuff, but that is way too much to talk about with any level of detail... So umm, here's the quick and dirty version with pictures instead of words whenever possible:

Comfort Race: racing a mountain bike with my finger in it's cast thingy was interesting. I wasted a lot of energy because my hand position was different and it made me keep over braking. Still had an ok race though, finished somewhere around 15th.

Spring break: road trip to Missouri to see Rachel! and do fun things!

I look like a fish!


We went here!



I brought my bike and got to ride the one day it wasn't raining. Found some sweet dirt roads. Also, central Missouri is hillier than I thought it would be.

School: normal.

Baylor Road Weekend: Had an okay road race and TTT. I felt pretty strong but am still lacking at short high intensity bursts. Getting better though. Crit was FAST. I hung in the group until halfway through 2 to go, and rolled in for a solid 7th.

Look! People on road bikes!


Rachel comes to visit: We did fun things! Like go to dinner at Uchiko, which was amazing, and hike and have a picnic at the Greenbelt, and go to the School of Architecture Formal!

I think I picked a pretty nice picnic location


Other News: we took a family portrait last night!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Bike Racing and Tacos

Normally this post would be all about the A+M race weekend that just happened, but nothing too exciting went down, so it will be about other things. Well okay, a little about the race first:
Saturday was the traditional Tunis Rubaix, only this time on a much tamed down course.
I don't feel like finding pictures if the actual courses, so here are some Google Image representations:
Old course


New course


Note that I have absolutely no problem with this. I like not having three wheel changes to finish a 60 mile race. It was cold and windy and rainy though, so don't be thinking I'm a total pussy over here.
I didn't ride all week because I wasn't sure what was going on with my finger and couldn't get in to see the doctor till Friday. Turns out I just have a torn ligament though, so as long as I leave this brace thingy on I can do whatever I want. Anyway, because of said not riding I was expecting a not so great race. And yeah, pretty much. I got dropped right at the end of the fourth out of five laps and rode the last one in with a guy from MSU.
The time trial that afternoon went about as well.

Sunday is crit day. About 3 laps in I saw what appeared to be the move for the day going up the road, and with a couple other guys that felt the same way, worked my way up to it. We caught them, then lapped the pack about half way through the race. The race went MSU attacks, S.Haga or Cody (A+M) chases down the attack, we ride a tad slower for a minute or two, repeat all day. I sat at the back of the leaders and called out attacks so that the A+M boys would be ready for them.
Two laps to go, lead out trains start organized. Baker (an A+M guy we had lapped), Cody, and S.Haga were on the front, followed by five MSU riders, then me. Baker pulled all of two to go, then was done. I know I have no chance in a sprint against those guys, so I moved up and pulled for about half a lap to help out Cody and Shane. Shane ended up getting the win. And rather convincingly. Over a bike length ahead of second!
There are a bunch of pictures by JToka photography here

Hrm. That ended up being longer than I thought it would be. I think there's still time for one other thing though. AND WHAT BETTER THAN TACOS!?
I'd heard of this taco place called Rosita's Al Pastor. I've known where it is. I finally convinced Joseph and Parker to go. We pull up to the truck in the parking lot of a bingo hall, get out, and discover that the menu is in Spanish, and the lady working the truck doesn't know enough English to explain what things are. Perfect!


We know about a third of the menu from other taco places and stick with that. I don't know if it was the meat in the tacos, the homemade flour tortillas, or the fact that I felt like I was in the middle of a drug deal half the time I was there (it was probably a combination), but those were easily the best tacos I've ever had.

UT Weekend 2011

I finished our road race for the first time ever. With the pack. It felt good. Crashing at the start of the last lap did not feel good. Despite the weather forecast of "sunny and in the 80s" we had overcast with occasional light rain in the 60s. Still not bad, until one of the rain cells hit right before a corner and made the road slick. For the only time all day. Not expecting the road to be slick, or to be sliding when I went into the corner, I instinctively tapped my brakes. Which sent me right down onto the road.
Two other guys did the same thing, so I felt slightly less like an idiot. And the pack slowed down for us to catch back up, so everything was good. We cruised for a bit and were really cautious in the next few corners, but eventually the pace picked up again. There were some attacks. My left hand was pretty sore from hitting the ground and I couldn't put pressure on it to follow the pack surges, but riding at a steady pace I was able to catch up every time the attacker was caught and everyone slowed down and waited for the next one to go off.

My priorities after the race:
1) Get some people to look over my bike and make sure nothing was broken (nothing was)
2)Take pictures of the blood and guts* (not too spectacular, but still...)
3)Get the medic to clean up said blood and guts
*

There was a TTT in the afternoon. I sat it out, figuring the team wouldn't benefit so much from someone who wasn't able to ride in the drops. Instead I got corner marshal duty. I stood here. It was super fun.


Sunday was crit time. I was a little worried about my hand, but I bothered the medic for something to use as padding in my glove, and she had some sticky rubber stuff that was absolutely perfect.
It was a typical Men A crit - S. Haga and some MSU guys got in a break that lapped the field, with some occasional other attacks that MSU covered. When the break caught up MSU continued to attack Shane, but he was riding strong enough to cover all of them himself and still win the field sprint...
I would've liked to help him out some, buuuut I was doing just fine sitting in. Maybe next week.

Right now my hand is pretty much one giant bruise and I think my ring finger might be broken. Awesome.

Getting Ready to Race

The first collegiate road race of the year is this weekend. One of the things I had to do in getting ready to race was glue some new tires onto my Zipps.
Living in an apartment I didn't exactly have too many options for where to do this, and the floor in my room looked like a pretty good option. I found some scraps of poster board to lay down, got my truing stand out and set up, got ready to go and found out I needed a different type of valve extender than what I already had... A trip to Mellow Johnny's fixed this problem and I got back to it.

Somewhere around this point in time I had the thought that it was too bad I wasn't back in a dorm room doing this. I imagine it would've been ever better than the time I was sitting on the floor with the cranks pulled off my mountain bike to put some new chain rings on. My room mate hadn't been home, but he came in, looked at me, and looking really confused, turned around and walked back out of the room.

The actual gluing of the tires, though:
The first one was absolutely perfect. I didn't even get glue on my hands.
The second one turned out something like this

I was pulling the last section of the tire on when a quarter of it slipped back off. Of course that meant pulling it up the rim again, but this time with glue all over it...

I would like to thank Goo Gone for making a good product.
I'd also like to point out that living somewhere with operable windows is very nice if this task is going to be done inside. ie As much fun as it would be to confuse a dorm room mate, you do not want to glue tires there. Your room would never smell the same again.

Dating Advice

The problem with writing for this during psychology class is that talking about anything except the stupid professor is really difficult. In an attempt to spare everyone from more of that, here are some lessons to be learned from a first date me and Andrew witnessed while we were at dinner last night:

When on a first date, there are certain things you should say. They do not include:
"I'm really bad at flirting."

"I don't drink a lot. Actually, yeah I do. I just don't get drunk a lot. Actually, yeah I do. [proceed to tell stories about times you've been drunk for 15 minutes]"

"Wait, I wasn't done with that story yet."

"One time I was at a bar with a really really hot girl, and she came with me when I got kicked out..."

There are signs you can look for to see if your date is going well. Again, these do not include:
Your date sitting with [her] arms crossed any time you start talking.

Your date staring at the wall or ceiling after you have been talking for any extended period of time.

Your date communicating in monosyllable grunts or unintelligible sounds any time you ask a direct question.

Your date saying things like "can we leave and get to that other place we were going to go yet?"

Stupid Weather

The worst thing about being in a freshman class is that the majority of the 300 kids in here use their laptops to take notes. Or, like me, to surf the internet while the professor talks about irrelevant things. What this means is that the server gets all clogged up and the internet either gets really slow or doesn't work at all. There should be a way to call seniority on the on campus internet. Just sayin'.

I was half expecting the class to only be about half full today because the temperature dropped into the 20s again today (read: about 40 degrees colder than Texas has any business being) and there was "ice" last night. But no, the class is about as full as it normally is.
Do these people really find Professor [I'm fat and I can eat 25 chicken wings and I'm going to spend half the class telling you about it because it makes me feel special and possibly less bad about myself because I remember the 80s when I ran a 5k in 30 minutes but when I tell the class about that I'm going to assume no one knows how to convert kilometers to miles and say that that gave me an average rate of 5:25 minutes/miles because that will sound more impressive than what I really did] that interesting?
I know I wouldn't be here except for the fact that I would have to actually study for tests if I did that.

My favorite part of the weather being like this is that it scares away all of the people who normally stand around on the West Mall and try to hand me flyers for clubs that I have no interest in or tell me about Jesus or whatever. Whenever they come back out I feel like I should be weird to them.
"What day does [uninteresting club] meet?"
"Oh Tuesday evenings aren't good for me, that's when I go around and give homeless guys handjobs. I just try to do my part to help out, you know..."
I probably won't though, because someone might think I'm serious (I'm not) and judge me. I need to get over myself because that would be really funny.

My least favorite part of cold weather is listening to everyone complain all the time. This one annoying girl posted on the facebook last week
"Umm, UT, why aren't classes cancelled yet? It's below freezing outside. I don't want to walk to class in this."
BELOW FREEZING!!! OH NO! No one has EVER experienced so much agony before!
Put a coat on and shut the f*ck up.

I do kinda wish I had a scarf though. I could wear it, like, twice a year with a coat and my neck would be warm.


Or I could wear it every day from December to March with a North Face vest and people would think I'm in a frat.


Or I could wear it in the summer with a v-neck shirt and everyone would think I'm a hipster.


How versatile!

Dirty Du

Another psychology class, another blog post. I see this making me actually keep up with this thing this semester.

The only question, then, is what to write about.
I guess I could do a quick recap of the Dirty Du(athlon) from way back in November.

My dad talked me into racing against him in it, and seeing it as a rematch for the triathlon we did over the summer
(did I ever write about that? I don't remember. Long story short, I double flatted which led to him beating me by one minute...)
I said "why not" and had my mom sign me up.

The format of the race was:
mass start into a 5k off road run*
20k mountain bike race
repeat of the 5k run

The run course was out and back, and pretty much all either uphill or downhill. I knew there were going to be a lot of people that could run faster than me, and there were. I finished to first run in 50th place.
Then we got to get on our bikes. It took me a couple minutes to get my legs warmed up after the run, but it didn't even take that long to start passing all the people who weren't faking the ability to run like I was. 20k later I had posted the 4th fastest bike time of the day and moved into the top 10 in the race.

Too bad I had to run again...
And I had kinda killed my legs riding...

My second run was more of an alternating walk/run/cramp... thing. Luckily I had gotten far enough up front on the bike that not too many people were able to catch up. Even though my second run time was only 63rd overall, I still finished in 18th, or 12th in the men under 40 division.

My goal going into the race had been to finish in under two hours. I came really close at 2:02.
More importantly though, I beat my dad by about 20 minutes!
Ha! What now old man?!

Things that Really Bother Me

I was at the grocery store a couple days ago and the guy in line in front of me had three young girls. What looked like twins and a third that was born no more than 9 months after them. Of course I found out they were with him when they ran up and threw a bunch of random things on top of all my stuff on the conveyor belt. Then ran off again. Then came back carrying more things and ran out the front of the store with them and waited for their dad who continued to pretend they didn't exist.

This semester I'm in a freshman psychology class. I thought it would be interesting. The professor just spent ten minutes explaining how even though ice cream sales and murder are higher in the summer, there is no correlation between the two. Are freshman really this stupid? Can we actually learn something, please.

Why are old people, when they try to use the internet, incapable of typing a URL into the address bar, and instead have to use the Internet Explorer Google Search Bar to type in 'aol' so they can then go to the website. My psychology professor does this.
Also, chain emails about how horrible Muslims and Obama are.

Fat people think that the way the world works is that everyone gets fat eventually. My psychology professor does this too.

Grad students think the two best places to have a conversation are halfway up staircases and in doorways. Sorry, but no.

Bike Stuffs

Yester-two days ago was the Cameron Park race. It happens to be one of my favorites and since I was feeling pretty good at the end of the collegiate season, I figured I would give it a go.
I hadn't raced with the pros since, what, March? Something like that. Those guys are still fast. But anyway, I started out around 10th aaaaaand pretty much stayed there... When the pack started to break up I got left in a group of four and it wasn't long before two others caught up to us. We took turns passing each other for the first lap, but more or less stayed together.
On the second lap it split up a little, but I'd say there couldn't've been more than 30 seconds between any of us. I also heard from someone watching that Fawley (who was leading at the time) was less than two minutes ahead! Throughout the rest of the race the gaps opened a little wider, some of the guys behind me got dropped, etc etc. At the finish though, I could see all the way up to 7th place in front of me (I was in 10th, since I only kinda made that clear earlier).

The scoring got messed up so I never got to see actual time gaps, which is a little disappointing - it would be nice to know if I really was that close to the leaders or not...

I planned on talking about the collegiate season some too, but I don't really feel like it now.

The Hugel is on Saturday.

Halloween 2010

Oh the irony...

Bay Model

Since Tuesday I put almost 100 hours and $300 into the most intense model I'm going to have to build the entire time I'm in school. Maybe in my entire architecture career.

Between Saturday morning and today the only times I went outside* were to walk to the art store, places to get food, or if I was going home to take a nap and change clothes**. I had no concept of what day it was, or even what time it was. I pretty much based my schedule around going home for a nap while it was still dark outside, and going back whenever 3 hours later was. The result was worth it though, if I do say so myself.

*Save an hour break for the Girl Talk concert ON CAMPUS!


**Yeah, I didn't take a shower between Friday night and Tuesday morning. Yeah, that's gross, I'm quite aware, thanks.

First pieces

Starting to go together

Doesn't count until you bleed on it

Wood floor

Hallway

...

I got columns, yo.

Comin' together

More beams

For the suspended walkway

Finished!



And a song to finish off the day:
'There are Some Remedies Worse Than the Disease' This Will Destroy You

Oh yeah, I have this thing, don't I...

I'll make the "I've been busy ...for the last month..." excuse. But as much as blogs are falling out of fashion, I really do need to be better about keeping on top of this.

Before I delve into every facet of my life for the last quite a while, here's a summary as a list of things that seemed to dominate everything that went on:
-Bikes
-Architecture
-ROAD TRIP
Well, that wasn't quite as helpful as I imagined it would be...
(Hey, at least I included something besides bikes and architecture, I almost didn't, but then I would've been lying or something, so, yeah.)

I'll also throw in the first Google Image result for "everything that's happened in the last month." To, you know, help clarify some more.

Right.

Moving right along...
In the world of architecture everything is coming along pretty good. My project completely changed three times before spring break, but now it's settled into a good steady position. We're starting on our 'Bay Model' this week - a giant section cut through our building. Mine is on the smaller side, at 12" x 30" x 14". So that is pretty much going to be dominating my life until Monday. There will be pictures! For seriously!

The bike part of life has seen my first two races with the Pro/Elite class. And that is a whole new world for sure.
Comfort was a stage race again, and my goal going in was a top 10 overall. I was close after Saturday with a 12 in the short track and 11th in the time trial, but Sunday was a different story... 17th in cross country... I was only 9 minutes off the winning time though, so I was still alright with that.


Two weeks ago was a new race - the Pace Bend mountain bike trail. I couldn't tell how the race would go just riding the course, so I went into it without much of a game plan.
The start was really short, so pretty much the entire group rode together for the first 4 miles or so before we hit a technical section and it got split up. I was still with around 6 people for the rest of the first lap, but eventually I followed an attack and got away from that group. The rest of the race wasn't anything special, just pass someone here, try not to get passed there, you know how it goes. I ended up 9th though! Got some sweet money! AND A RIBBON OMG!!!


There was a race in Oklahoma I was going to do as part of my spring break road trip - first place singlespeed payed $500 and I was already going to be in that general direction. It ended up getting cancelled because of snow though...

But yeah, that road trip!
Since, umm, June, I think, I had been planning on using my spring break to drive up to Missouri to hang out with my BFF Jill Rachel. We did all sorts of awesome things! Like, watch a guy punch a cop in the face, then quickly get tazed, all while we were eating ice cream. And I went to a class at a school that I'm not even a student at. And we hung out in a tree.
And we went to her friends parents house where there was a cave. I don't know about anyone else, but I was expecting something along the lines of a big entry room, then maybe a 20 foot tunnel to another room that we would have to kinda crawl through.
Nope.
We're talkin' straight up hands and knees for an hour and a half each way, without actually getting to the end. We only turned around there because one of the girls had a dance to go to that evening and we were going to be pushing getting her back in time as it was...



Whew, this is getting long. (That's what she said.)

Anyway, continuing in not at all chronological order, last weekend was Rachel's spring break, so she returned the awesome and came down to the ATX for a couple days!
And we did more awesome things! Like take a good chunk out of the list of awesome places to eat here.
And go to a concert (Copeland's last tour ever).


And hang out at the Cathedral of Junk!





And at Mt. Bonnell.


And we did a lot of other cool stuff too, and we're officially dating now, and we... Sorry, kinda lost my train of thought there on that last one... Anyone that's known us for the past, like, eight months will probably be saying "well finally." But you know what, deal with it. We do what we waaant. That's a reference to something. I think. Don't worry about it, I don't.
Sooo yeah, theres that.

Umm, a song or two. Lets see...
'Lazy Eye' Silversun Pickups
'I Remember' Deadmau5 and Kaskade

Following my Usual Habits

I have a test in 25 minutes, so I once again declare it blog time.

Last weekend was the first XC race of the year at Warda. Following a rough week in studio* I decided to race singlespeed so I could have a shorter race and hopefully get back to the ATX a little earlier to get some more work done. Nothing too special, I got 4th. Might have been able to do 3rd if I had slept any the week before. I won a sweet yellow ribbon and flaschenoeffner though!
*Two all-nighters and two most-of-the-night-ers

The A+M "road" race is this weekend. I kind of want to do it, but at the same time I've heard too many stories of people breaking carbon frames on the course (and I could really use the extra day in studio), so I'm skipping out on Saturday and just driving up for the crit on Sunday. Should be good.

Studio is going good now. Last week my project completely changed twice, result in the longer than normal studio hours, but it's mostly figured out now, and mid-semester review is Wednesday, so I think I'm looking good for that.
SPRING BREAK NEEDS TO HURRY UP AND GET HERE!

Pace Bend

I have a test in two hours and a bunch of design work due tomorrow - time to write a blog. (Note that this means I'll have pictures of architecture stuff to put up soon!)

Last weekend was Walburg/Pace Bend.
After 6 years in a row of not finishing Walburg, I decided that there was no reason to continue the streak. As per usual (and despite the opposing forecast) Walburg was rainy and cold and after talking to everyone that went I decided that skipping out was definitely a good call.
Sunday rolled around and once again Barry Lee managed to get the Gods on his side and the temperature was up in the mid 70s by time I got to the park. (It's snowing today for comparison of how crazy out of place that weather was.)

(Cue some more people coming over and asking me how to do things on the test.)
(Cue me using some more parenthesis.)

Anyway.
I rolled up to the park, got my number, scrounged up some pins, aired up the Zipps, put my kit on at some point in time, filled my bottles, warmed up a little and headed off to staging to sit around and completely negate the half hour warm up I had just done. Talked to a bunch of people I haven't seen in forever, laughed at the people that still pin their numbers on upside down, and then the race started and I did some more of the same.
We had 62 miles to race, and for most of it I just chilled in the pack and either caught up with the people I don't see in the off season or made fun of the sketchy riders, Alberto Contador wannabe, guy with only one rear brake pad, guy that kept talking to himself, guy riding a TT frame, etc etc etc. Not to say we weren't going fast or anything, I was just feeling really good (it's easy to tell when people weren't talking back to me). I did bridge up to a break one time because it looked like it might be going somewhere, but it wasn't.
When we hit two laps to go (they're 6.2 miles each) (that's ten laps total, before you have to go and do the math yourself) (parenthesis) I headed up to the front of the pack where everyone was trying to get someone else to go chase down the guy who off the front by himself. I guess the general consensus was that he would get tired and come back on his own, because no one did anything resembling chasing him down.
We got down to the last two or three miles and he was only maybe 100 feet in front of us, and after some yelling at each other to go catch him, Will finally decided to take care of the problem and bridged up. So then it was the two of them maybe 100 feet in front of us. And they stayed there.
We got down to the last mile of the race or so and finally broke into the part where everyone gets all sketchy and close to each other trying to be at the front. I had memories of last year when half the pack went down in the last corner and decided that I was going to avoid that this year, since it would probably happen again. With about (sudden unit change OMG) 300 meters to go, right before the final bend, I got a chance and jumped off the front of the pack.
I was closing the gap on Will and the other guy fast and knew I would beat them to the finish easy enough, and about that time Shane (Chad's little brother) came flying by me. There was no way I was going to be able to do anything about that, so I just kept going and hoped no one else was coming that fast. There was some noise behind me, but it was only one guy (although looking at pictures everyone else was a lot closer than I thought at the time) and he didn't have quite enough to get by me before the finish (I'm very happy the race wasn't ten feet longer).
Yes, you read that right, no one else came by me - yes, that does mean I got 2nd place! No, I still have never won a road race... Yes, I'm more than happy with 2nd, I really wasn't expecting that out of myself.

Play by play of the last 100 meters. Courtesy of Joseph's dad.

Also, it was Brandon's first ever weekend of road racing. He did pretty good. And he better write something about it.
Also, someone I know did her first ever duathlon this weekend. She did pretty good. (And she better write something about it, too.)
Also, (parenthesis).

#352

I felt really good riding last weekend, which motivated me to sign up for the Pace Bend race on Sunday. I've done alright at this one in the past, so, I'm feelin' it. Besides, I need a reason to take the Zipps out of the closet again... I don't think they've seen the light of day since I was in Colorado. The finish line better not be somewhere stupid again this year, like 100 meters after a corner or on a downhill. Come on guys, you had it right three years ago.

In studio-land we're getting into the beginning of actual designing for the semester. Short of a piece of paper with some criss-crossy lines on it though, I don't really have anything worth posting pictures of. Maybe next week. I think there's some stuff of some sort due sometime around then.
Oh, and I checked out a book from the library about parking garages. It was published in the 50s. Meaning 1) all the cars in the pictures are also from the 50s, and thus awesome and 2) theres some goofy designing going on, but it's so cool at the same time! Like a parking garage completely enclosed in glass! I can't come up with any reason for that other than "well, I suppose it was built in '57..." Seems like the type of thing they'd do back then.

As for general life, there's not too much going on. Not having anything else to do Sunday, I went to a concert at Emo's Inside (meaning it was really small) for the first time in a while. Saw Jeff the Brotherhood and Screaming Females. It was pretty good.
Killswitch Engage is coming to Stubb's next week, but I can't decide if I want to drop $30 for the ticket or not...
I'm about to find an envelope for the purposes of this. I'm kinda excited to see how that turns out.

Dirty Dozen

I haven't done this race in a long time. Since I was 16, I think. For a while there me and Andrew would do it every year, and considering our combined age was about half that of the teams we were racing against, we did alright. Got second on a team with our Dads once...

This year I got invited to be on a 4 person co-ed team, with Kim, one of the ladies that races in my mom's class and two other guys about my age, Ricky and Daniel. Our team was aptly named 'Three Cubs and a Cougar.'
All last week was rainy and nasty, I think Lance said something about the Seattle weather in Austin on his Twitter, but I heard Warda didn't get hit as bad, so there was hope.

Somehow Friday afternoon I managed to talk my mom into coming down and racing the 6 hour version. (I'm sure she'll post something about it.) So waaaaay too early Saturday morning we got up and headed out to the race. There was mud around and places out in the parking field were kind of mushy, but other places were completely dry, so I was still holding out hope the course would be in good shape.

The team had decided I was starting, since I would probably have the fastest lap times and could get us a nice early lead, hopefully. Which meant I got to do the run too! My favorite... Wooooo... It wasn't terrible though, no one was in any big hurry, so I got to the bikes around 15th and passed all the way up to 3rd before we even hit singletrack. Right before diving into the trees, Kevin Koen and some other guy I recognized, but couldn't put a name with, came by me, making them the only people to pass me the entire day! I followed them around for a while, but eventually they got away and I didn't see anyone else until the end of my second lap (we were doing two at a time - they were short) when I started catching people still finishing their first lap.

I tagged Daniel to head out and sat down for a nice two hour nap before it was my turn again. Repeat for a total of 12 hours. Well, almost. I had our first two 'night' laps - it didn't really start getting dark until half way through the second one, and before Daniel went out, he apparently asked everyone to talk me into doing an extra so he would only have to do one lap in the dark. I was already dressed and muddy, so I acquiesced and sat around and watched other people put better lights on my bike and helmet until he came back through.

At this point we were far enough in the lead that 2nd place couldn't catch us as long as we did the last lap, so I took it as more or less a victory stroll, although looking at the results it was only 5 minutes slower than my average lap time, and it was at night, so I must've been going faster than I thought...

In the end the team got 20 laps, putting us in a three-way tie for 2nd most laps of any team! (And we were only 5 minutes away from being able to do 21, which would've tied for the most, but I don't think we'd have gone out again.) We won the 4 person coed, and would've gotten 2nd in 4 person open! If that doesn't say enough, the team was great, I'd race with them again any time!

Here's some picture links:
I need to start wearing these socks more.
Nope, not muddy at all...

MTB Adventures

Yesterday I decided I was going to load up my mountain bike and go for an adventure looking for some of Austin's top-secret trails. I vaguely knew where a couple of them started, and figured I could just ride around and get lost or something. But luckily, I ran into a guy Dave I kinda know, and he knew the trails and offered to show me around. It was a lot better than I would've been able to do by myself. And there are some awesome trails out there!
I went back today and rode the same stuff again and found a few things we didn't ride... I think I'm going back a time or two during the week... The Greenbelt is going to start having Kyle withdrawals...




I had a song stuck in my head all day today too, so it'll serve as song of the day or whatever this here thing that I do is called:
'Okie Dokie' Dan Deacon

That School Thing

I just got back home a couple minutes ago from my last class of the day, which means I've now been to every class I have this semester. The first day is always kind of hard to judge by, since we don't really do anything more than get an introduction to what the class is going to be about and how despite the rumors we don't really need to buy air mattresses to go under our studio desks. Turns out they don't expect us to have time to sleep, so that would be a wasted purchase...
Anyway, I think I'm going to be happy with all of my classes this semester, especially compared to the fall - as awesome as Jack's design class was, everything else I took more or less sucked.
I have two lecture classes: Construction, which is never my favorite, but I always do fine in it, and this time around the professor seems pretty cool, and Environmental Controls, which was HORRIBLE in the fall, but from class intro day, I feel like I'm really going to enjoy this semester of it. Then I have design as per usual. This semester we're designing a [smaller] events center, and for the first time we really have to consider all the elements of the building - how it stands up, HVAC, you name it... Finally, I have a class called Alternative Real Estate Actions - Experimental Research. I signed up for it with no idea what it was about, only knowing that Steve, the guy teaching it is awesome. The first day we watched a film called 'One Peace at a Time,' about how much the world sucks and how we can work to make it better. All I know is that it somehow relates to the class and we were told that we are going to be going out and building things. So, I'd say it's going to be a good class.

In other news, I've been back on the bike for a couple weeks now after the foot incident (which I don't even remember if I talked about on here - I broke my foot in a car wreck, no big deal) and I'm starting to feel pretty good again, so we'll see how busy I am with school, but it could potentially be another pretty good racing year. I might try out the new singlespeed in some races too!

Now that winter break is over and I'm doing things besides hangin' around with my people, I'm going to try to keep up with this thing a little better, but if you'd like even more frequent updates about my life, don't forget the Twitter.

To finish up, here's a couple songs:
'Gangsta Luv' Snoop Dogg
'Fever (The Toxic Avenger Remix)' Family Force 5

New Things

No pictures of the New Car

Because I keep going places where the sun isn't out...

Instead, today's reason why I love architecture school:


And:
'Wolf Like Me' TV on the Radio