You Know

Here is a link to the transcript of an interview Kobe Bryant gave yesterday:

Kobe Interview

I don't care about basketball whatsoever, but I did find it fairly amazing the number of times Kobe said "you know". Wow.

Bulgaria

A few days ago, one of the graduate students in my group freaked out and decided to quit at his masters. He was the senior most graduate student in the group, and since there is only three of us working on this project, I have now become the senior most member.

This doesn't mean anything, other than I'm first in line to go to conferences and talk about our research. Interestingly enough, it now appears that I have a good chance of going to Bulgaria October 14-19th on the dime of the school to present a paper! I find this somewhat insane, being that I've never left N. America and I would be doing this solo (unless anyone wants to come, free hotel room if you do).

I'm thinking that I would have to stick around for another week or so and do a little traveling, maybe in Greece, Bulgaria is just north of it.

If anyone has been there, let me know!

Map of Trip

Here is a map of my weekend trip, the markers have pictures embedded in them.

Map of Trip

Ride to Briggsdale

Pete and I rode to Briggsdale, CO and back over the past two days, its was a great ride, pictures I took are available here:

Briggsdale Tour Pictures

I may get around to making an elaborate google maps item, but this will have to be sufficient for now.

We started Saturday morning from Boulder and headed up through Hygiene to Ft. Collins. I was using the BOB trailer and Pete had his panniers. We made some really good time in the morning, there was little to no wind and we rolled into Ft. Collins around noon. After a delicious Spicy Italian at Subway, we rode through CSU's campus, which isn't as pretty as CU's, and found our way to New Belgium Brewery, who treated us to a free pint.

The ultimate goal was to get to Briggsdale, CO which is in the North Eastern plains in the Pawnee National Grasslands. To get there, we headed straight east for about 40 miles. Somehow, the storm systems around us created a weird inversion and despite of the fact that we were headed into the direction the wind always blows, we had a headwind pretty much the entire time. It sucked our spirits for about 20 miles before we got to Ault, CO, where we stopped for dinner at a mexican restaurant.

This restaurant was a sight to behold, not only did it have a couch inside with a 3 foot tall california raisin sitting on it, but a disturbingly large photo of a hamburger framed on the wall, like 3x4 feet! Pete has a picture of us with these items that I'll post when I get the chance.

The wind didn't die off and the next twelve miles were grueling. We finally hit the border for the grasslands and almost called it a day, but the wind completely died off and the rest of the ride to Briggsdale was really nice, especially at that time of the day.

The campground we stayed at was called Crow Valley Recreation Area, which is a prime bird watching venue, something that neither of us have any interest in. We set up camp and were fortunate enough to meet the friendliest people in the entire world, Andrew and Jean from Greeley, Co. They were with their kids at the next campground cooking campfire food just for fun, and were not staying the night. They invited us over to eat there food, which was amazing; Brawts, baked potatoes, fried Shitake mushrooms and zucchini, and baked onions all for free! It was delicious, especially since the original plan was to eat in Briggsdale, which turned out to have zero restaurants, or anything else for that matter.

After a good night's sleep, we headed out of camp to find some food. It took about 25 miles, but in Kersey, CO we ate at this pretty incredible breakfast joint. I had something called the Haymaker, which consisted of hashbrowns covered with biscuits, which in turn were covered with over-easy eggs, and everything smothered in gravy. There was sausage on the side as well. Quite a meal to say the least.

Immediately after riding again, I began to experience flats, in total three. I blame the tires I was using, Kenda Small Block Eights which are cross tires. I should have gotten some touring tires, but I'm cheap. Anyways, these things were getting really soft on the pavement, which I believe let to the increase in flats. Luckily, after the third tire change the sun disappeared behind some clouds and I didn't experience anymore equipment failures.

Finally rolled in to Boulder around 5 or so, glad to be done but having enjoyed the ride. I then immediately ate two pieces of cherry pie that I had conveniently bought before I left.

Things I will not be using on another tour:
-Kenda products of any kind
-Terry saddles, this monstrosity on my bike has probably caused me permanent butt damage. I ordered a Brooks B17 the second I got home. I don't know how I managed to convince myself to use it again after the problems it gave me in Utah, but those days are over. I also ordered new Specialized Armadillos to tour on, kevlar weaving!

Things I was impressed by:
-My new Mountain Hardware sleeping bag, this thing kicks serious ass and I'm excited to try it in colder weather.
-My Joby Gorillapod camera tripod. This thing wraps around everything and it allowed me to actually get in some pictures so it wasn't the Pete show nonstop. Good call Dad!
-My new Chaco flipflops, they did a great job letting my feet air out after a day stuffed in cycling shoes and the soles are like hiking boots so you can walk on anything in comfort.

The Killers Suck

Last night, The Killers attempted to play Redrocks. They sang to songs and then walked off because the lead singers throat hurt. Ultimate lameness. Luckily, they rescheduled for September 4th and they're honoring old tickets, so I'll get to see them again.

It was the first time I've been to Redrocks, its a pretty amazing venue and I want to see some more shows there, assuming they actually bring in some decent bands...

Get Human

Nick showed me this site a while back, but it basically tells you how to get to a human as fast as possible when you call a customer service center. I just used it to get through on my Visa, it works great. Check it out:

http://gethuman.com/

Garlic

In keeping with tradition, I have begun my annual summer garlic binge. Last year was not as intense, but the summer before, Josh and I took it to new levels. The intensity of the flatulence finally forced us to cut back, but as I am going to be alone for most of this summer, I see no reason to stop the deliciousness.

I made some fettucini alfredo for dinner today, and it called for five cloves. Even after brushing, flossing, and some listerine, I can still taste it. I'm excited to drop some bombs tomorrow while walking through the crowds at The Killers concert, I'm sure it'll add to some 16 year old kid's concert experience.

Keep On Climbing

I was reading on CNN that gas prices have hit an all-time high of $3.07 a gallon, and there hasn't even been a hurricane this year to make it jump. That's too bad for all you suckers who rely on your cars, I was completely oblivious that prices were even increasing. I hope it hits something ridiculous, like $10 a gallon. Imagine the bike traffic!

Sure, gas prices hurt the economy, but on the other hand, it should infuse the alternative energy market with cash, creating many more jobs in the USA as opposed to overseas. It'll probably keep us out of the middle east as well, no one wants us there anyways. Rising gas prices = good times for the USA.

Weekend Update

I've had a pretty good weekend, I've been working on a research paper that is due Monday and finally am getting the data I hoped for.

Yesterday, while waiting for my data to complete running, I decided to watch a movie, Notes On A Scandal. Its not a very good movie and I do not recommend renting it. However, at one point they made Lasagna which got me thinking that I really wanted some. I looked in the cookbook my parents gave me for Christmas and made a huge Lasagna. Realizing there was no way I could finish it on my own, Pete, Mary, and Sarah came over and helped me eat it. It was delicious.

This morning, Sarah and I got a good ride in up to Jamestown, it was a really nice ride. I had never been to Jamestown, but the road up there is freshly paved and has some nice curves on the descent, I think I'll be riding it again in the future.

Now I need to finish my paper tonight, which is going to suck, but it'll be nice to be done with it. Then I can finally have a weekend off without any work to do! Pete and I are planning a little tour for the weekend, more on that later.

Gold Hill Via Switzerland

This morning I took the Surly on a ride with Ben and two professors from my department to Gold Hill, via the Switzerland Trail, check the route below:



Tom (one of the profs) drove us to the turnoff in his truck and we rode from there. It was nice taking a truck past the pavement, but I felt a little guilty not climbing the entire thing!

Last year, I rode a variation of this route on my old Specialized Enduro, and decided it was overkill, hence the trade in for the Surly. It performed like a champ, climbing with very little effort, at least compared with the full suspensions I was riding with. I think it may have inspired Ben to look into a cross bike.

The only downside to the skinny tires is descending on loose gravel, I defiantly experienced a little slippage.

Unfortunately, both Ben and I were in a hurry today and missed out on pie, a huge tragedy in my opinion and I hope never to repeat it.

Nice Day For A Ride

I finally got off my ass and went for a ride today in my attempt to kick off the summer Patrick with a bang. For those of you not with the times, the summer of Patrick involves me biking, running, or some other outdoor activity pretty much everyday. It also involves drinking microbrew, mostly in moderation, but sometimes not.

It was a really nice ride, not a in the least windy or cloudy. Pete, Adam, and I rode to Rabbit Mountain via Hwy 36 and came back to town through Hygiene. It was a little over 40 miles total. The route is below, if you click on it, it'll take you to an interactive map of the route:



This is actually the first time I've gone riding with Adam in quite some time. He learned a new game, which involves fictitious mini-races, which makes the ride way more entertaining. For example, the first to the end of Hwy 36 wins sprinting points, or first to the top of a hill gets king of the mountain points, Tour de France style. I recommend adding this to all your rides in the future.

Cinco de Raino

Yesterday, it rained like crazy all night long. I had to ride my bike back home from the bar and I got ridiculously wet. However, my head was dry thanks to the HUGE sombrero I was wearing the entire time! It is the ultimate inclement weather gear and I think I'm going to open a business that sells helmets with built-in sombreros.

Photo Which Represents My Life Exactly

I stole this image from Kathryn, I hope she gets over it. It is a perfect description of how I live my life everyday. If anyone ever sees a poster of this, buy it for me.

Almost Done

I just finished giving my final project presentation in my computational fluid dynamics class, meaning I am finished with 1 out of 2 classes for this semester! The presentation went well, it was on immersed boundary techniques. For those of you who have any idea what a PDE is (skip to next paragraph if not), this method allows you to simulate boundaries inside your domain without altering your grid in any way. Since you're solving on a cartesian grid, things are simple and clear for your actual solver. Also, it is extremely easy to simulate moving boundaries with this method, a bonus for me as I aspire to simulate moving droplets.

What I found most shocking in this course is how incredibly dumb most of the aerospace engineering graduate students seem to me. Their final projects consisted of using commercial code and having no idea what it actually does. I equate this to learning how to use photoshop or something, making a picture, and saying you drew it by hand. I am continually shocked by engineers, what do they actually do?

Monday is my Applied Analysis final. I wish I could use commercial software on that, its going to be a bitch. Four days of studying await me!

What You Know About Math?

Need I say more?