it's a small world

So it seems that a new friend of mine has had a few conversations with North Carolina coach Roy Williams.
Turns out a guy that is new to the cycling team, from Poplar Bluff (southern mo), is the brother of Tyler Hansbrough, the best basketball player missouri has producted in a long time. (Who has a younger brother that could contend for the MO player of the year this coming year)

Also had a past Olympic cyclist tell me this week that I have a strong sprint. This is something I kind of know, but not something I would except to hear from someone who has sprinted with the best in the world.

Murray State weekend (warning...this is a long post!)

Alright..so the post you've all been waiting for. The Murray State race weekend.

As usual it took the team a while to get our crap packed into the 3 vehicles we were taking. Left town about 4:30pm Friday.
My car was loaded down with 3 bikes on top and 3 bikes on a trunk rack on back along with 4 of us inside. We'll just say my car isn't meant for that much weight and we had climbed up some hills at slower-than-tractor-trailer pace. Can't wait to have a car that still has some power with that amount of weight attached/inside.

Got to our beautiful Super 7 motel in Cadiz (I think that's the name of the town), Kentucky at 10 (ok, I don't really remember what time it was...so I just made that up). Normally one car goes inside and checks in and then we all go into the rooms. That way we can be charged for a couple rooms with a 2 people in each, as opposed to 3 rooms with 4 people each. Well that plan didn't work out so well as the Super 7 didn't have anywhere for the other two cars to hide out of sight. So we parked in a corner and took off a few bikes and started messing around. All in all, we had to get one extra room and were charged for 4 people to a room, paying about double what we thought we were going to be able to pay.

Got up around 7 Saturday morning and loaded up the bikes and headed to a McDonalds about 50 feet from the motel. Had a delightful breakfast (Deluxe breakfast with pancakes, eggs, sasuage...mmmm :) and headed about 15 minutes down the road to a really nice park.
Unloaded the bikes and then just messed around for a while. The A's race is always the last to go so we just goofed off for a while and cheered for the C's and B's. Mizzou represented well. Took 1st and 2nd in the C's. Also took a couple of the top 10 positions in the B's. As for the A's...we all finished. Chad broke his bike a couple times and came in with Lou. I felt like crap from the beginning. Had a great start as usual, until I encountered a bump in the grass that I didn't see and it almost threw me from my bike. Luckly my right hand and right knee saved me. Right hand was fine but right knee got a nice cut (and a nice bruise that's coming in as we speak) on it. I wasn't climbing worth crap, and you can only make up so much time on the downhills and flat ground. I was about 5 minutes back on Chad and Lou when I came through at the end of the second lap (9.5 mile laps, A's do 3 laps) when the conference director decided to have mercy on me and said, "if you want to stop now i'll place you". (For you non bike speaking readers, that means I still got points for the race, as opposed to DNF'ing, but didn't have to do the last lap) His words were music to my ears. My reply, "hell yeah! Thanks!"
Part of my climbing problem is that the seatpost I have now can't go up as high as I need it...so i'll throw the old one back on it and let the climbing commence.
I didn't check to see what places we all took...so I'll find that out when they go online in about a week.

After Chad and Lou came in we packed up the vehicles and went out in search of food. We found it in the form of a all-you-can-eat pizza buffet. We ate a lot..it was good. Then two of the cars went back to the park to practice the dual slalom course and my car went back to the motel for some relaxation.
That's about it for Saturday. Lou and I walked across the highway to get a Wendy's frosty, and then I walked back over about 3 hours later with some other guys for another frosty...which my stomach told me later was way too much frosty.

Sunday we got up at 6am and had convenience store breakfast (this is where we all go into a convenience store and choose breakfast in whatever form we see fit). Headed over to the park so the dual slalom guys could practice a little before the course was supposed to close at 8am for qualifying.
The guys, and girl, qualified and the short track races started. Our B riders did well. Lou and I did well. I took 9th and he took somewhere between 15th and 18th.

Then the dual slalom finals took up the next couple hours. Our boys did super-great and we packed up and headed home.
End of story.

The next collegiate race we're going to is in Michigan in a few week, something like a 13 1/2 hour drive. So if you know anyone that wants to donate a large truck (to haul the bikes) and a large passenger van we'd be glad to use it!

Brown v. Board

Got a link to this website in class last week.
Really interesting info

Click on the title above or here

One of the instructors for the class I got this from when to a conference that Cheryl Brown Henderson spoke (daughter of "BROWN v. ...")

1. The case is misunderstood, the media wrote the history
2. Brown was teh 12th school segregation case in the state of Kansas
3. One reason for the Brown decision was how the U.S. was viewed by other world powers (i.e. USSR). Claimed the U.S. had no moral authority since they oppressed blacks within their own country
4. Rev. Oliver Brown was the tenth person recruited to created the case, he was the only male in the suit, hence the name "Brown v. Board of Ed"
5. And most interesting to me: The school environments in Topeka were equal. Schools were just as nice, the faculty at the black school had more degrees

Kentucky

races this weekend went well. I'll post about it tomorrow.
Highlight of the weekend: took 9th in the Short Track
Lowlight of the weekend: sucked terribly in the cross country

Parker, a photo-j major went with us and took some awesome pics. Check them out at http://www.missouri.edu/~pje5f9/murraystate/

News

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MS150

I think next year I'll start doing the MS150 again. Get to break out the "Lifetime Rider" jersey again :)
(random thought after reading discussions about this years ride)

Neverending bicycling tales

Had a good recovery ride bright and early yesterday with a guy thats new to the cycling club, or actually isn't a member of the cycling club yet.

This afternoon after class is the Tuesday Night World ride as usual. I'm pretty sure I haven't missed the ride yet since it started this summer.

This weekend it looks like about 13 of us will be heading to Murray, Kentucky for Murray State's race. Course sounds tough, but a few less miles than our race last weekend.

The following weekend I'll be doing a 12 hour race with a couple guys from Illinois at Landahl park, just outside of Blue Springs. It'll be my first 12 hour race, so i'm pretty excited about trying it out. Hopefully I can convince a few other Mizzou riders to put together a team.

I'm a little behind on reading for my class at 3 today, and we're supposed to teach what we read to someone else in the class...so I should get on that.
Classes are going well. Got a group project coming up and plenty of reading to do. Just have to make time to do it between riding the bikes, messing with the bikes, learning how to mess with the bikes, and work.

Have a great day

exhausting

This weekend was an exhausting one.

Saturday I pushed my body to its limit in the mountainbike race here in Columbia, and still finished in the back of the pack. Not the best feeling to pain yourself that much only to finish near the back, but me finishing the race does give our team a good number of points.
Got lapped by another racer on my second to last lap. It was about 28 (of 30) miles into the race for this guy and he was moving like he had just started. I couldn't hold his wheel (stay right behind him for you non-bike language speaking folks) for more than a minute.
I can handle 30 miles in a road race (that was the distance of both road races I did this year), but it's much different on a mountainbike. The last lap (30 mile race. 6 five mile laps.) was probably the least amount of fun I've ever had on a bike...or had while holding a bike. When I was a junior there was a race that I got a flat but wanted to finish so I could get the points, so I walked the last few miles of the race. That was much more fun than the 5th lap yesterday!
Toes were cramping, at times it was hard to hold the handlebars because my knuckles would cramp up, my legs were cramping. The worst part was being lightheaded for the last 5-8 miles.
Huge difference between the guy that took 1st in the race and me. HUGE DIFFERENCE.


I'm tired and I'm supposed to meet a new Mizzou rider on campus at 7-freakin thirty for an introduction to the Big Tree loop. (For the record all I normally do on Mondays is work 2-10. That means waking up no earlier than 9 or 10.)
So goodnight it is.

Thanks Scott and Tracy for coming to see the race yesterday!

Tire & Garage Pics

My beautiful garage




What I did to my tires at the Purdue race


And the other tire

If you noticed plenty of the knobs are ripped completely from the tire. With the second tire picture a better resolution would show a nice path in the middle of the tire with knobs completely ripped off and some just worn all the way down

bam

It's about 2am and I just finished up homework for the night.

I've actually really like the homework we've done so far in T315: Teaching Reading in content areas
All my classes have been going pretty well. Just wish the 4 hour class I have every Wednesday wasn't so long. My body doesn't agree with 4 hours in a chair (well maybe a recliner after a long bike ride...but that's not quite the same as what we've got in class)

Chad's birthday party was a great time last night. Played some games, watched some downhill mountainbike riding DVD's, watched many people get drunk, and then Brady and I took Chad downtown shortly after midnight for some drinking.
To spare the details, Chad drank a lot and shortly after we got him back home he was throwing it back up. Maybe that's why I've never been drunk. If it hurt that much to watch him, its got to be even worse to be him at that point.

He did survive though, with not a lot of moving around today, and tomorrow (technically today) we're gonna get him back on the bike and ride over through Ashland around noon.

The bike races here at Mizzou are coming right up. Should be an exciting weekend.

In other exciting news I might have the chance to get some experience in a bike shop. A new one just opened up in town with basically just the owner working by himself. He seems real nice and after going in there and buying a couple parts to rebuild my old bike to be sold I asked him if he might like some help, whether its paid or not. Told him that I basically just wanted to learn as much as I could about bikes. He thought it sounded great, just gotta give him a couple weeks as he just opened up and still is trying to get settled a bit.
We'll see what happens!

A September weekend

Rolled into Odessa Friday evening. Erin Stein came by and received the grand tour of the house, including the part Andy was a terribly cute little boy/something went terribly wrong during these years picture tour. We went to see 40 Year Old Virgin in Independence. I loved it. Erin on the other hand probably cried all the way from mom and dad's place to her parents place. We'll just say it wasn't exactly her type of humor.

Got to Scott's place about 1am and played a game of Madden and then went to bed. Got up at the crack of 8:30am and met up with dad and a friend around 10 to head to the Mizzou-Ark. State game at Arrowhead. Tickets were crazy high, I think dad paid around $80 for us all to get in. Thanks again dad!
Game was good, we spanked them. Fumbled too much, top receiver dislocated his shoulder, and our new offensive schemes didn't impress me too much (I can see tougher teams tearing it up), but it was a good time...my first time being in Arrowhead.

Was going to go riding at Landahl after the game but was worn out enough that I decided just to head back home. So I took 24 Hwy to Marshall and I-70 the rest of the way.

Sunday I did a butt-load of mowing on the short track course, and then rode it for 12 minutes. It completely sucks (in a good, but very painful way). The race this coming sunday will be 30 minutes. Ouch!

Monday was a practice race out at Cosmo park, where the cross-country race will be this Saturday. I got a flat tire during the pre-ride and met up with the guys before the start of the practice race. My rear wheel was out of true and the tire was actually rubbing against the frame almost every revolution, so the practice race wasn't exactly at race speed and only did 1 lap as opposed to the 5 that I'll be doing this Saturday.


Today looks like this:
Work- now-3
Class- 3:30-4:45
Bike to bike store- 4:45-5
Tuesday Night Worlds- 5:30-7'ish
Chad's 21st birthday celebration bbq type thing- ~midnight

Definately real

Erica, it's real. No fake tatoo's on me in the past 15-18 years.
Am I addicted? I would say no. A few, to me, doesn't seem like an addiction. I do have in mind at least one more I'll be getting eventually, but the majority of my body will have no ink on it.


I'm not at work yet so I can't post about what I was up to this weekend. Simmer for a few hours and click that refresh button.

New

This coming weekend is Mizzou's mountainbike race. Rode the course today with some of the guys and found that I need to tune the bike up a bit more before this weekend. The week should fly by. Class, work, and riding every day. Oh yeah, and homework.

Good stuff.

During work tomorrow I'll post about what I was up to this past weekend.

Writing

Sitting here at work writing my first reflection paper of the year (there will be many more to come as the COE's philosophy of education is based on reflection, hence the name of the lab I work in "The Reflector".)

The name of the assignment is My Life in Schools, Communities, and Society. 5-10 pages about me.

Basically I felt like posting something up because my first real paragraph (yep, the into paragraph is officially not a real one) is about family. Can't really talk about the other stuff until my family is mentioned.

But more specifically my parents. Even more specifically a conversation we had downstairs towards the end of my junior year of high school. I told them I was through with basketball. I don't remember if they were suprised or not. I imagine they sort of knew what kind of a physical beating I took in practice nearly every day ,thanks Scott. They didn't tell me it was a stupid idea. They didn't tell me it was a great idea. They just wanted me to give it some thought.

Where would I be now if I had quit that year? Probably wouldn't have the best friend that I have now. Wouldn't know many people here in Columbia. Hmmmm....

thanks mom and dad

Favorite

Current songs:
"Feel It In The Air" Beanie Sigel ft. Melissa
"Stop the Music" P Money ft. Scribe
"You Already Know" 112 ft. Foxy Brown



It's hard to believe what's happening in Louisiana right now. Seems to me like its a country away.
Gas prices going through the roof, winds/rain tearing part of our country apart, and me sitting here at the University of Missouri almost immune to all of it

Purdue (cont.)

After checking out the course we settled down a bit in the rooms and studied/tinkered with our bikes/did homework/watched tv. Headed to bed around midnight.

Got up at 7am Sunday. Another waffle and two doughnuts for me. My race wasn't until 11:40 (supposedly) so I had to eat enough to hold me over.
Packed up some of our stuff, got the bikes put back on the vehicles, and headed down across town to the BMX PARK

Brady helped the race promoter create the short track course around, across, and through the bmx track. It wasn't done as early as they hoped so things were pushed back. My 11:40 race started at 12:40.

The DUAL SLALOM guys did a great job. Nobody ate it (except for Steve taco'ing a wheel in practice) and they all looked pretty good out there. I'd like to have a jumping bike some day so I can learn that stuff.

Foosh, John, and Mike did a great job in the B's short track.
It was only Lou and I in the A's since Brady was out with his dislocated shoulder and Chad is our champion dual slalom rider (he placed 15th at nationals last year).

It was an extremely fast race, supposed to be 40 minutes plus 2 laps with lapped riders being pulled. There just happened to be 3 riders that were much faster than everyone and about 12 minutes into the race more than half the field was lapped. So Lou and I were pulled and spared a great deal of pain.
Lapping in a short track race doesn't happen all that often, but this course was an extremely short one. In those 12 minutes we did 8 or 9 laps

Lou and I pedaled acoss the way and showered at a campgrounds showers and as we got back to his Jeep the rest of the crew showed up from grabbing the stuff that was left at the hotel (we expected to have time to go back and shower there after our race. Wasn't possible since things were running late.)
Headed home with a few stops for gas and some nutritions delicious McDonalds
Got back into Columbia at 10:30, unloaded the vehicles and headed back to my place.

Purdue

The race weekend was good

Got to the hotel in Indiana about 1:30am Saturday. Got some sleep and was back up shortly after 8am to eat a continental breakfast and get ready for the races. (on a side note..we had 2 rooms reserved for 12 people...and it worked out fine)

It was decided that I would race A's to get us more points. (A not so great finish in A's can be more points than a great finish in B's). This didn't work out so well as I was using tires that were made specifically for mud and there was no mud. So while I'll have a great picture up here in the next couple of days of some thrashed tires, the race sucked. Midway through the second lap (10 mile laps, supposed to do 3 of them) my handlebars came loose and when I'd hit bump, jump, or other obstacle they'd move and make it hard to ride. The combination of that and the tires caused me to stop after the second lap. I think I've only DNF'd maybe one other time in all the races I've done, but with a new bike and a carbon fiber handlebar that I didn't care to ruin after one race it wasn't worth continuing.
Also in the XC race on Saturday Brady, last year's team president and the fastest XC rider we have now, dislocated his shoulder so he's out for a while.

After the races we headed back to the hotel, showered up and went across the road to eat.
Some of us went to the local bike store afterwards and then went to check out the course for Sunday's Dual Slalom and Short-track course.

Pic of the XC start on Saturday

Frustration

Got the new mountainbike yesterday. Was super duper happy, even though I had just gotten spanked at Tuesday Night Worlds.

Stayed up 'till 3am messing with it trying to replace the chain, shifters, adjust the brakes, switch cassettes, and so on. Forgot that I would need new cables to make the switches..so when I stopped at 3am the bike was missing:
- chain
- rear derailleur
- both shifters
All thing you might consider pretty important to the bike being rideable (if you don't see the sarcasm here you need to go try and ride a bike missing these things)(and you singlespeeders don't count..you still can't ride without the chain..unless its downhill..but that doesn't last forever)

Went to CycleX this morning and was there for almost an hour and didn't get much done. Too busy and not enough people (hmmm..if the biatches would have hired me maybe that could have changed).
Basically set up an appointment for the brakes to be bled Thursday as well as the wheels being trued. Paid way too much for cables and housing and came here to work about 15 minutes late.

Starting to feel like I'm not going to have the loan money left over that I need. Guess we'll find out.

So today will include: work, class, cycling meeting, work on the Cannondale until it's rideable.

Here's the bike in my garage before I started tearing it and the Giant up

tried

sushi for the first time a minute ago. Homemade Korean style sushi at that. Thanks Moon.
I expected it to be much worse, so maybe I'll try it again sometime. Maybe there's a reason I know so many people who like it.

My first class starts today. Then I have to grab my bike out of a closet here in the Reflector and get out to my car to get over to Two Mile Prairie for Worlds.

It looks like my biggest problem of the semester might be eating. If I'm not able to prepare meals ahead of time and pack them for lunch I'm going to spend lots of money on fast food. Not eating will not work with the riding I'll be working into my schedule.

Over and over again

This week should be quite the week. A huge change from the past few weeks where all I really needed to do each day was ride my bike.

Work most of the day today.
Tuesday I'll get my new mountainbike in and ride Tuesday Night Worlds at 5:30. So basically ride Worlds than pick up the mountainbike from UPS on the way back into town (no I'm not going to carry a huge box containing a bike while riding my bike..I'll have to drive)
So Tuesday night will be spent tinkering with it and whatnot.
Wednesday is hopefully going to be the first ride with the new bike and the first cycling meeting of the semester
Thursday I have won an office party at Deja Vu
Friday I'll be leaving for the first collegiate race at Purdue

Of course a few classes will be spread out in here also.

On another note I've been very very happy with how I've been riding the bike. The show-me state games went really well and if I wouldn't snapped my chain in the first mile this past weekend in St. Jo I'm pretty sure first place wouldn't have been out of the question. So basically I have more confidence now than I've every had before on the mountainbike.

Been a while

Its been a while since I've posted so I'll do a little overviewing:
Week of 7-13: went home on Wednesday and did some mountainbiking at Landahl park just north of Blue Springs. Rode some really technical sections and then went out to ride a part that I used to ride and collected a hundred and something spider webs on my face and forearms. Definately won't be riding that part of the park again.

Thursday I was supposed to do some clothes shopping with mom. We're having breakfast at IHOP and she gets a call saying she was supposed to be at school an hour ago for meetings. She leaves and I scout out the deal at the mall for an hour or more then head back to Scott's.
Meet back up with her at 4 and do some hardcore shopping...good stuff.
Met up with Erin from high school a little bit later in Liberty and had a great time eating and playing sand volleyball at William Jewell.
Don't remember what I did Friday.
Saturday I got sick at Scott's.
Sunday was a meal at church and booger gave a nice presentation about her trip to Nicaragua or however it's spelled.

Monday (we're up to the 15th if I've lost you) I went on a Ashland loop ride by myself. It was terribly slow as I still hadn't eaten much all weekend and wasn't fully recovered from being sick Saturday night.
Tuesday I got shelled at the Tuesday Night Worlds ride. Terrible.
Wednesday I did some intervals with Ben (a junior rider on the Columbia Cycling Team...which I'll join now that I have the cash to) and had a good time. I imagine as he grows he'll become much much faster than me.
Thursday was another ride with Ben. Went out in the heat and humidity at 3pm and rode for something like an hour and a half.
Friday was a mountainbike ride with Foosh, the new Mizzou cycling president. He did plenty of road riding this summer in St.L and Oklahoma but zero mountainbike riding as his mountainbike was here in Columbia and he wasn't. It was good until I flatted.
Saturday mom and dad brough up their old refrigerator for us to use. Then I met up with mrs. stein at the state fair and learned a lot about hogs and rode some rides with 3 adorable little girls.
Sunday was a mountainbike race in St. Joseph. Started well but less than a mile into it I snapped my brand new chain...so race over for me.
Not my happiest moment. Picked up Steve on the way up there in Liberty and Craig showed up also. So 3 Mizzou guys representing. Good times

In between all this stuff I got a Razor phone, bought a mountainbike on ebay, made at least 3 trips to Cyclextreme for things like shoes, pedals, seatpost, chain, cassette, and built up a little worshop in my garage for biking.
And in approximately 6 1/2 hours the new semester will start. No class for me though, just work on monday from 2-10

This coming weekend is our first collegiate race at Purdue Univserity. I've been riding very well and the new bike will hopefully be in commission so this should be a good one!

Pictures posted

At Scott's for the night. Laptop has been on my lap for too long so its time to go. Click on the title of this post for a link to some new cycling pictures

hurtin legs

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State Games

Took 3rd today in the mountainbike race, Sport Men 19-29 division. There were 5 of us Mizzou guys in that division. Chad, myself, and Steve were at the front for the first two laps. Then Steve dropped off and a Chad and I started talking about who was going to take first and who was going to take second. Then we look back and see another guy in our class coming up behind us..so the race was on with a couple miles left. (since the start we hadn't seen anyone in our division other than the three of us Mizzou guys...so we were 20 miles into the race when we finally saw someone) Chad has the energy and power to hold him off, I didn't. Still couldn't be much happier than getting third place.
Last year this race was my first mountainbike race in a long time and I rode in the beginner category. After one lap I bonked, finishing pretty close to last place. So third place in the Sport category is a big step up. The collegiate races should be exciting.

Had a great time eating at CiCi's with the guys after the race...now its time for some relaxation and healing.

Also forgot to mention at the basketball games yesterday we had a NBA player in the house. Tyronn Lue showed up (he's originally from Raytown and became somewhat famous for pretty much shutting down Allen Iverson a couple years ago in the NBA Finals. He's got a couple NBA Championship rings from his time with the Lakers)

Worn

out

Not sure if its more physically or mentally.
Rode 30 miles this morning before I'm usually even awake.
Then played a game of basketball in the Show-Me State games with a cousin of Ronnell's and some other guys. I sucked. (For the record...cycling in now way improves your basketball skills. Me playing well the other night was a fluke it seems.)

Haven't really eaten anything yet today so I'm abouts to eat then back to the Rec around 4 for the next game. Hopefully I won't suck as bad.
Tomorrow is the Show-Me State games mountainbike race. We'll see how that goes.

tired..gotta eat...bye

biking recently

this summer hasn't gone quite like I planned.
the past few days though have gone pretty well as far as biking is concerned

Friday afternoon/evening was a road ride with Dan. Total trip was a little more than 30 miles for me.

Saturday morning was mountainbiking with Steve, Doza, and Steve's roommate, whose name I can't remember, over by Ashland. It was decent...a good part of the trail was overgrown which normally pisses me off, and there was some technical stuff so the speeds weren't all that fast.

Saturday evening was a road ride with Doza and Steve's roommate. Overall it hurt. My butt hurt. Legs weren't much better. Total ride was something like 30 miles.
Sunday afternoon was a mountainbike ride at Rock Bridge. Was going to ride what I assume will be the Show-Me State Games course again until I met up with Chris and his ex-roommate on the trail. Followed them for a while and did another quick loop by myself after they were done.

This evening I'll probably head over to the hill in Sapp and do some repeats.

Some races coming up I really want to do. Will probably come down to how much money I can spare.
August 7 - ShowMe State Games Mountainbike race
August 13-14 - Tour of KC races
August 21 - Krug Park Mountainbike race in St. Joe
August 28 - Mountainbike races in Springfield or Cape Girardeau

Then in September the Collegiate series starts with the race Mizzou hosts

IT

hurts to hear people you care about cry. And there's nothing you can really do about it.

Need

I need a change

Finally Friday

Sheriece won an office party last night..so The Vu was the place to be. Buzz was hilarous, and the long islands perfect.

Today the plan is to work until 4, ride the bike or play ball for an hour then go see dad since at the church choir (some acronym that I can't remember) conference thing in Jeff City.
This weekend will be all about biking seeing as how I've done so poorly the past couple weeks riding before work at noon.

not much

not much to say

Got some more pictures posted on flickr (there's now a link to my flickr page added to my "links" section on the right). I'm really starting to like that site. I imagine once I get a camera I'll like it even more

Rode for a couple hours this past Sunday and about passed out after I got back home. Temperature on my bike computer thermometer during the ride said 101 degrees...too damn hot!

Tuesday Night Worlds last night was good. Was able to hand onto a breakaway group until I decided I'd worked enough for the evening and it was time to ride back in town to campus.

Also got some quality time with NCAA Football 2006. I'm now the coach at Mizzou (didn't know that did ya) and have been doing a really good job of recruiting high school guys. (Finishing second in the Heisman race your junior year of college helps)

Eminem and his ties to Odessa

"Eminem show goes on despite bus crash

Published Friday, July 15, 2005

ODESSA (AP) - Rap star Eminem planned to put on a show in Denver last night even though three members of his entourage were among 11 people injured when his tour bus crashed on a Missouri interstate.

The crash happened Wednesday night on Interstate 70 near Odessa, 25 miles east of Kansas City. Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, was not on the bus, publicist Dennis Dennehy said.

At least seven people on the Anger Management Tour were sent to the hospital, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

The report listed four other people, three on motorcycles, who also went to the hospital.

Among those injured was Eminem’s DJ Alan Maman, also known as Alchemist. The 27-year-old was listed in good condition yesterday, officials at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City said.

Stanley Benton, 26, a rapper who goes by the name Stat Quo and is considered one of Eminem’s proteges, was treated at Independence Regional Health Center and released, hospital officials said. He was scheduled to perform yesterday in Denver, a show that featured Eminem, 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, D-12 and Obie Trice.

The state patrol said the bus was headed to Denver after a Monday night performance in Chicago."

Where the Red Fern Grows

rented it the other day and just got done watching it here at work.
Why'd I rent it? It was one of my favorite books back in the day.

All the way through the movie I wonder how "Will Coleman", the main character's dad, looks just like Dave Matthews. So I go ahead and decide to let it run through the cast, and there next to "Will Coleman" is Dave Matthews name.

hmmmmm....

NCAA Football and sitting in a cop car

Picked up NCAA Football 2006 right after midnight last night/this morning. On the way home I got to sit in a cop car for the first time.

(it would be fun to leave this post at that so you could wonder why I was in a cop car...but i'm not going to)

Seems that some time very recently my right front headlight must have went out. So it was the front seat I was sitting in, not the back, and the officer just told me to get it fixed. (And while he doesn't care much for football video games he does like driving ones)

Played the game until around 3am. Also played it for a couple hours this morning before work. Overall I think I'll like it better than last years.

Also, got some more pictures on flicker from a mountainbike race a couple months ago.

Got some

new pictures uploaded.

Check them out @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/92468988@N00/

Tuesday Night Worlds yesterday was tough. Rode with the faster guys to see if my riding lately has helped. Stayed with them longer than ever. We ended up doing just 2 laps as we rode extremely hard the whole time. Then rode back into town. Got home and saw that my average for the day (including the ride out and back in) was higher than what I had in the crit and close to the road race. Hmmmm.

Got some ribs I'm gonna throw in the oven tonight...found some honey baked ribs type recipe online that I'm gonna try out. We'll see what happens.

Thanks Columbia Missourian

4th of July and pace car driving

I sucked at the crit today. Enough said. I'd like to blame it on the race yesterday, but I'm not so sure it was the problem.

The day got much better though when i got to drive the pace car (a truck borrowed from a local dealership..click on me to see what it looked like. That thing could corner like a beast...trust me) for the CAT 3/4 race. Pictures will be posted sometime, assuming Dan got some good ones.

Had planned on being at the lake for the 4th. Didn't happen. Decided that wasn't the best place for me to be so I came back home and am at Scott's now.

Apple Cup

Race this morning was great!

Started at 9:45. Course was just over 10 miles..almost no flat ground, mostly rollers (up and down...up and down)

Basically stayed in the top 10 for 95% of the race. With about a mile to the end of the first lap some guys went down..one guy over his bars and i heard he was hurt pretty bad. I was in the front and looked back very briefly and just saw one guy on the ground and another guy about to get throw off his bike.

With two miles left in the 30 mile race I went off the front (aka attacked, aka tried to leave the group) and stayed away for just a little bit. The pack caught up with me and I basically had nothing left...finished in the back of the pack.

Couldn't be happier. (Last road race I did I only lasted 15 of 30 miles before falling off the back of the pack....finishing at least 10 minutes after the group did) Felt good after the race....like I could have done another lap without too much trouble.

Tonight at 7 are the street sprints downtown...so I'm gonna go watch those with some guys. Then tomorrow morning is the crit through downtown...we'll see what happens.

Food and I

Food and I have quite the relationship.

I have to eat a lot of it to keep me going. Eating costs money, so eating a lot can cost a lot of money.

For instance: a bowl of fresh fruit at Gerbes this morning cost me $9. Yes mom, I could have bought a whole watermelon, pineapple, a thing of strawberries, a cantelope, honeydew, and made my own hugemongous fruit bowl...but that would have taken a heck of a lot more time and I would have to have a place to fit all those things. One refrigerator (for 3 people) is not enough for that. (I realize you could do it...but I refuse to abuse my refrigerator as you do yours :)

My little box here at work (meant for the boss to deliver papers, etc)almost always has food in it. When it doesn't it at least has napkins, forks, or spoons waiting in anticipation of food.

My relationship with food is also going to hurt me on the bike for a while. Why? Because I always run my system out of it. I burn calories pretty damn fast, and can only eat so much before a ride. So I've got to figure out a way to balance what I need to consume with what I can afford, have time to throw together, and so on.

We'll see what happens

Today for lunch (that I just ate):
Roast from crockpot
Rice (some type of packaged deal I've had in my cupboard forever)
Corn
Mixed fruit
(and didn't eat some mashed potatoes I brought..not enough room on my plate, so they'll be here for me tomorrow)


Went on a short ride this morning. While I was riding I was thinking about what I might post, and it occurred to me that while 20-something miles is considered short to me now, a little more than a year ago it probably wasn't.
The other day on the ride out to Tuesday Night Worlds Andy kind of told me where the road race was this Saturday. It's actually fairly close to my place (as opposed to Froze Toes starting at 2 Mile Prairie across town) but I'm not sure of a couple of the roads. I do know KK though, and he mentioned the short steep climb and the longer climb at the end..so I rode that way to get myself psyched up a little. I suppose tomorrow after work I'll head out that way, hopefully with the full course in my head, to give it a go before the race starts at 9am on Saturday.

That's it. And today I got two free Honey Buns (images of our house being built always come to mind when honey buns are mentioned, seen, and/or eaten)and a Duncin Stick that a group left at our front desk for us.

Good/bad

Good: When I got on the scales last night before bed they said 193lbs
Bad: 185lbs would be a whole lot better for biking (though 193 is lighter than I expected)

Good: I got paid last night
Bad: It will all be gone once I pay bills..which I've brought to work with me because I never seem to get them done when I'm home

Good: Columbia Cup races are this weekend
Bad: I ride regularly with 3 of the guys I'll be racing (they all ride more mountain than road, so while they're in the Expert category in mountainbiking they're a CAT 5 on the road). So I'll either get my butt kicked, or throw my body into a very painful state only to still not do so well.

Good: Last week I brought in my portable hard drive and did some editing of some music videos I wanted to put on a dvd
Bad: Looks like the computer here at work I was using isn't fast enough because all of the clips have audio that is out of sync with the video

Good: Booger got me a present when she was galavanting through Europe
Bad: I won't know what it is for a couple weeks

Bad: wasn't in a good mood up until a few minute ago after waiting on the phone for 25 minutes to pay my cable bill and then figuring up my other bills
Good: this website made me happy again before i head home in a little while

His clothing line is fairly crappy...but

George Hincapie is one of my favorite riders. Most people don't know that as juniors he and Lance were training together in the USA cycling program. Most people probably also don't have any idea how much team work is involved in a race. Basically without someone of Hincapie's ability Lance wouldn't be the famous racer he is.

(I say his clothing line is kind of crappy because that's what Mizzou cycling uses and it's not holding up quite as well as I hoped for what it costs, even at the discounted prices we had)

This is a pretty random post just because I was looking through an ESPN: The Magazine article featuring Hincapie.
And it mentioned he was 6'3 and 164lbs. So he's my height, which I like...but has a 36lb weight advantage on me.

Work's almost done for today, then Tuesday Night Worlds, then a baseball game.

miles and tennis

Tennis is a lot harder than it looks. Or maybe, playing decent tennis is harder than it looks. Played with Ryan from work the other day (he played in high school) and he taught me a lot. How to hold the raquet, where to stand, how to serve, and so on.

I'm not too terribly bad for only playing 3 times.

Sunday I had a nice 68 mile ride. Rode 30-something miles of the Ashland loop then headed down Z Hwy and happened to ride by Anna (Mizzou rider that does endurance, like over 200 miles, type events). So we rode into town together, got more water in our bottles, and rode until the sun started to leave us.
Probably the best (besides last week's Tuesday Night Worlds) ride I've had in a long while. Felt great, except near the end when all I could think about was Pepsi and steak. Mmmmm.

Got to sit down with Erica today at the Artisan. It was great to see her...it's been a while. Talked about camp a bit and now i definately feel like I need to volunteer for a session this summer.

Work is boring today. Registered for Fall classes and looked into my loan options.

Sold my Logitech Harmony remote on ebay....will ship it off as soon as I can find the USB cable. A sad day for Andrew's home audio/video components.

Guess not

Doesn't look like the race Sunday is going to work out.
Staying here will save me gas money, give me plenty of time to get miles in on the road bike, and maybe take the time to put together a computer that I've had half put-together for about 6 months, which I can hopefully get rid of for some money.

Plus I've thought about selling my mountain bike lately. Why? It's way too damn small for me. I'm not sure how much I could get for it since it has some dings in it, and really needs an overhaul...but maybe I'll find out sometime. I've mostly been riding the road bike anyway. The mountainbike has about 4 rides in it so far this year.

I have thought about trying to get enough loan money this coming semester to get a new bike (hadn't decided if it would be a road or mountain), a laptop, and recently I've realized that I should have a camera...so a digital camera also (though nothing in the range of the Digital Rebel I had). The first to drop out of that list would have to be the laptop, as thats more of a "its a good idea to have one but it's not a must". Then the camera, then the bike.
Maybe the used road bike I've been looking at will still be around in a couple months. Then I could grab it. Sell my current road bike, and gain back 1/2 to 3/4 of what I paid for the new (used) road bike or keep it as money for a future new mountain bike.


Oh yeah, and my car has been giving me signs that it's tired of me. Just came back from the shop and it doesn't seem as powerful as it was when I left it there...and once again I couldn't put it into gear without turning it off first (but then it worked fine).
Another reason that makes me want a full-time job as opposed to more school. I could get a car that's more my size...what would mom and dad say (kind of ironic that now they might actually read this so this really isn't the hypothetical question it would be if I had written it the other times I've though about it) about me using student loans to pay off a new (used) car?

Sometimes its hard for me to guess the way they would answer questions like this. Sometimes they completely suprise me with what they think of things. Other times their response is pretty much on with what I expect.
With this one I'd would guess that dad would tell me flat out "no", or ask what's wrong with me or my car.
Mom would probably ask what's wrong with what I've got now, and tell me that a car can wait, and something about only taking money that I really need.
hmmmm

I'm 23. I wish I could make decisions like this myself. I feel like I should be able to. Maybe thats because years ago (high school age) when counselors ask you about where you imagine yourself in 5/10 years I imagined about now I would be making some decent money (my idea of decent money would be about $25k...a realistic number for a beginning teacher. Scott stop laughing...you're a lucky money snatching biatch) and unloading the college car for something a little nicer.

WHAT???!!!

Men's Health (August 2005) - 64 : Percentage of Americans who don't believe obese people are to blame for their weight

How....what...why?

I understand that obesity has reflections of socio-economic status...but I highly doubt the people that responded to this question were thinking about that.

Who you gonna blame? McDonalds. Yep that's right, they force you to go to their building and eat their mcNasty's and mcGreasy's.

Dammit people, it's supply and demand. They've got so many damn restaurants because billions of people eat up their food, not because they've got nothing better to do than finding genetically altered chicken (note: now is a good time for you to read "Fast Food Nation")
People stop eating there, they quit making money..something they enjoy doing, and by-by goes the restaurant. (The only unfortunate thing about this is that it would take something terribly drastic to influence billions of people.)

If it can't be the restaurants then who is to blame?

My response: a whole lot of different things, including the obese themselves
Start with the government letting lobbying organizations basically create the food pyramid. How are people going to know what's good for them if the govt. isn't even putting the FULL truth out there?

That's enough for now...the blame continues but my writing doesn't. Back to the magazine I go.

HOT Hot hot

I hate coming in to work all hot and sticky.
It's not that I mind being all hot and sticky...I just don't want to sit that way for 8 hours. This morning I purposefully made myself hot and sticky, taking what's left of my mountainbike to Rock Bridge park for a ride.

Thinking about racing in Blue Springs this Sunday. I don't really care to drive home again so I'm trying to find a ride.

Got back, showered up and went outside and almost instantly started sweating again (but without the dirt and mud on my legs this time). Took my road tires/rims to CycleX cause they're both out of true. Unfortunately I don't have the know-how, or the appliances needed to get the know-how, to fix them...yet.
Being heavier than the average cyclist (maybe I should say heavier than the average racing-type cyclist) definately has its disadvantages. Either my wheels are much suckier than I think or they just don't like me sitting on them for lengths of time and get bent out of shape so that they can rest in a bike shop for a day.


In better news, I washed my staff shirt for the first time this summer. Smelled it last night when I was taking it off and decided it was definately time for a washing. Much better now.

The Year 2056

Seeing as how

the last post has drained me...this one will be short

My day was great.
Work went by fairly quick...only 4 hours of it.
The ride out to Two Mile Prairie was good.
The actual Tuesday Night ride was by far the best I've ever had. Went out with the first group (the slower of the two) and pulled a good portion of both laps I did with them. It was basically a great warm up (heart rate in the 170's rage) until the second group caught up with us on the 3rd lap. Jumped on with them and actually made a few moves with them. Helped chase down a breakaway and sat in basically the whole way back. Heart rate even got up to 195 (may have been a tad higher when I wasn't looking). Basically...I've never had as much fun on a road ride.

Then Brady and I picked up a couple of his friends and went to watch our Cardinals team play at a local park. Something like 12 and 13 year olds sponsored by a local construction company. Played the optomists tonight and got spanked. There's no scoreboard but by our count it was something like 16-4.
Joseph came in to relieve in the last few innings...and didn't fare so well...just not enough control.
The 6 of us guys were by far the loudest there (and no...we don't know any of the kids on the team...)
After the game one lady (who was a Cardinals fan also) came up and asked us if we knew any of the boys on the team. We of course said no. "We just chose at team to root for". Her - "I think that's just great. Guys like you out here, these boys need that" and she was being serious too. She was glad we came out and cheered for her team.

( side notes:
1.the cardinals were wearing cubs hats. this was a bit confusing...like they didn't realize that although a "c" on a hat could stand for "cardinals"...they were wearing cubs hats
2. anyone could steal any base at any time. One kid that walked onto first actually got to second base before the pitcher ever threw a pitch to the next batter. And I'm pretty sure the pitcher had no idea that he was stealing a base at the time. The kid then proceeds to stand halfway between 2nd and 3rd..right in front of the shortstop basically, when the pitcher looked back and realized there was a person on 2nd. So the crafty baserunner took a few steps towards 2nd.
3. on the other field was a team with some pretty cool uniforms...I let the other guys know that we shoul have chosen them as our team (I'm pretty sure they won their game). So much for Brady looking at a list of teams and choose the best named team.
4. most cardinals players had their first name on the back of their uniform, so it was easy to yell for them. Some didn't...but brady was remarkably good at remembering their names

end of side note)

Then I got a ride back to my car, came in the door...talked on the phone with mom for about 15-20 minutes...and now its time to shower and eat dinner.

I'm exhausted....both from biking, cheering, and typing.
Goodnight

Mom

(NOTE: This post is intended for mom. Yes, you can read it..but its not for you. Yes, I could send her an e-mail but since I just found out she reads my blog I feel like putting it on here)

I don't know where to start. I wish my gratitude, love, respect, and so on showed through my actions/words more than it does. I feel it inside, but unfortunately don't think that's so easily visible on the outside.

You have always been the image of perfection in my eyes (despite the hair in the 1981 Odessan, which was before my time anyway :)
(I wish I knew more about you actually....as in I love hearing you tell stories about yourself, you and dad, etc.)
But what kind of standard is set for a miscevious boy when he hears that his mother basically never did anything bad growing up (that may have sounded odd..cause i don't exactly remember the story you told about stealing(?) one item from someone but having to return it later. But basically the point was that you did do a bunch of bad things.)
Obviously, this didn't click until a certain age. I really have no idea why. It's not like I said "hey, I just got kicked out of a store for trying to steal some cards...guess that's bad and I won't do that again". Nope, more like "well I'm lucky he didn't call the cops like he said he could have, mom and dad are gonna be pissed".
But somewhere along the way it obviously did click.

I've written a few papers about role models in my life. I know an early one was about your dad and another one was about you.

I'm sort of getting lost with my thoughts here so you can just read them and organize them yourself.

1. It almost hurts inside sometimes to see what you put yourself through to help the ones you love.
I would have to say that at least once a day I look around at what I've got (I'm talking just about the stuff I've got here in my room) and it hits me that other people don't have it this good.

We talked about how I always work more hours than the other students I work with. Maybe you can see where I get this from? (HINT: You)
I don't want you to run yourself ragged all the time because I'm here in Columbia and I need money to pay my ultilies or get new tired for my bike.(I would like to point out that I do realize that me saying that isn't going to stop you from working the way you do)
I guess the point of that is to let you know that while it's unfortunate that it doesn't show so much, what you do is appreciated by me in a way that I don't have the words to describe.



I'll probably read over this in an hour or so and find a few of the mistakes I made, or the things that made no sense at all and do some fixing up and adding to.

(A little bit later)
I was reading over this and actually considered deleting everything I'd written and just putting in one paragraph...instead I'll just add the paragraph and leave the rest.

I do a lot of stupid things. Obviously I'm good at using up money. But I'd like you to know that after I do these stupid things, and in fact realize that they were stupid...its like a reflex that causes me to look back at it and think something like, "mom would be disappointed in me for...", or "why in the hell did i just do that. I wasn't raised that way" or something along these lines.

I think a huge number of people are not raised this way. They can't look back and wonder what caused them to do this because they don't realize that what they did was bad enough that they should be looking back at it.

And along the lines of disappointment...leisha's birthday balloons are a pretty good example of what disappointing you actually does to me. You didn't get me to cry because you looked mad...you had me crying because you were sincere when you said I disappointed you. (And for the record...when you told me the other week that that was one of the two times you've been disappointed in me recently I cringed...)

I was trying to think of what I would say if someone told me I could say one last thing to you. I wouldn't know what to say. I think so highly of you, the way you help others, and on and on.
But that's not what I would say.
(Being that I'm not a parent I don't know what would mean the most coming from my child)
So I'll just say that I can only hope that someday my kids feel about me the way that I feel about you.

Sorry I don't say it enough, but I love you mom
(and if dad would ever happen to read this you can let me know and I'll write to him some things I've thought about writing before)

Last thing (sorry...came to me in the shower)..many people "talk the talk". Few "walk the walk". You do both...and maybe that's why much of the words above are written.

Great Pictures

I love these pictures


And google has closer images of home than it used to

and my other home


Looking forward to some pain starting in about an hour. I have my bike with me here at work, so I'll change and ride out to Two Mile Prairie. Then after Tuesday Night Worlds i'll join Brady in cheering on his adopted baseball team...some construcion company sponsored Cardinal's team. (its supposed to be a good time as this is the first year these guys have played non-coach pitch baseball)

Good Fathers Day

The weekend turned out to be pretty good.
Stayed up 'till 4 playing xbox on scott's projector.
Rolled out of bed around 10 and mowed scott's lawn. Then headed home.

Grilled chicken, round steaks, polish sasuages, and hamburgers for the family. Mom made some awesome stuffed baked potatoes and a great salad and so on.

Helped dad pick up a mower and refrigerator from grandma and grandpa's old house and then headed back to columbia around 9:30pm.

Here's a tip for you grillers out there: if a polish sasuage (or any other meat) is rolling (ok...so only round-ish meat will roll...) off the grill and is covered in bbq sauce don't grab it and throw it back on the grill. The bbq sauce will be very hot and it will burn you.
Yes, my pinkie was nice and bubbly.


In other news, I'm giving Flickr.com a try.
Here's what I've got so far Andrew's Flickr

KC

got to Odessa around 6pm and realized that mom and dad weren't there because they had a wedding to attend. So I went for a drive.

Somehow I ended up around Parkville and then talked to Travis and headed his way. Decided to jump on 69 highway to see where it went. Ended up in Roeland Park. Drove around a bit to see if I could find a house I visited long ago. Don't think I ever found it.
Eventually got to Travis' and hung out for a while. Watched some Chapelle's Show season 2 (gotta love the appearances by Anthony Hamilton and Kanye/Common)and then headed to Scott's where I'm at now.

I still feel lost when I'm around in the Odessa/Independence/KC area....and it has nothing to do with the roads I'm on

On a side note, driving through some places I've never been through downtown today kinda makes me want to find a job for a while that has me working in the inner-city of some large city (don't think KC would work because of the whole lost thing). I think something like that might satisfy me.

That's what I don't have a lot of right now I guess. I'm not worried about the whole happiness thing, that comes and goes. And thats just fine if you're satisfied with what you're doing. I'm not...and don't know when I will.

Happy Fathers Day dad...even though you don't read this.

Worn out

I'm finally getting tired of being here all the time.
Well, maybe its not that I'm at work all the time but it's that I have so much crap I should be doing at home.

And I don't get my first paycheck of the summer for a week and a half.
And for the second friday in a row McDonalds gave me 2 sasuage mcmuffins with egg that just happened to not have the egg on them. Almost took them back today. Next week (if I happen to have enough money to buy breakfast) I'll check before I leave the place.

In better news. I actually woke up for a while at 5. Thought about a 6-8 ride this morning rather than after work so I could get some things done at home after work. Then some good country song came on the radio and I drifted back to sleep listening to it.


And I hate it when I'm grumpy but am not sure why. Mom would say it's because I didn't get enough sleep (though I think she would use that reason for about anything, not just grumpyness), but mom is wrong this time. I got enough sleep.


Hilarious poll (makes more sense if you read the article that it goes with)

A couple links for you

It hurts to read this. Why? Because I have the model that's one down from this and I need to put it on ebay cause I'm past broke.

Follow the link and choose the "Boston Runners" link. These guys know how to work the streets.

Listen to these samples (or if you have a full cd give it to me...please)


I'm holding your car hostage booger. If you ever want it back then bring me back something cool from Europe

Yes, yes I am, and thanks

Erica: yes I am in Columbia all summer. And yes, if you're in town I'd better be seeing you.

Booger: I already realized I was a butthead (but this butthead was talking to his parents instead of you :). Thanks for the reinforcement though.

Anonymous: thanks for the comment to the post the other day.


Today got an early early start. Met up with Brady (past MU cycling prez) at 7 AM (that comes before 8, 9, and my usual wake-up time of 10!) for a ride. We put in 55.6 miles, the first 3/4 with a pretty decent tempo then relaxed a bit towards the end. We were both hurting by that time.
Got back home around 10:20 and cleaned up and grabbed some Nothing But Noodles for lunch. 3 Cheese Macaroni w/ chicken... mmmm good.

Now its time to sit on the floor and do some stretching and resume my internet browsing here at work.


Also this just in: you can get fired for blogging
My response: no $hit. You can get fired for much less with the way some business are run
(Note: usatoday must not be all that quick because this was more of a hot topic in the past year when a couple people got fired for it.)

Back in

Looks like I'm back in the Education program here at Mizzou.

I've got mixed feelings about this. A large part of me wants to finish what I started a few years ago, another part of me wants a full-time job so I can stop living off other peoples money.
Thought about sending mom and e-mail the other day asking what she would think about me putting my teaching on hold for a while to get a full time job now and make some money. I didn't send the e-mail...but I've still thought about the options.

Tonight should be a painful Tuesday Night Worlds ride. Had a great ride Saturday morning but didn't get back here in time to ride Sunday, and no riding Monday morning either. So let the pain flow.

Had a pretty exciting monday. or not.
Ted and I taught 3 class sessions over Nvu, a freely downloadable web design program. They went well and left me tired from talking and standing/walking around so much.
So the first 4 hours of work went by quickly. The last 4 hours weren't bad...read some of a book...check my e-mail about 80 times, the usual stuff.

Got home and decided to grill up some pork steaks and polish sasuages (note: I will no longer buy the cheapest polish sasuages Gerbes has...just not worth the savings). So grill up and barbequed that stuff and made a loaf of the honey wheat type bread that mom gave the the recipe to.
Pretty much layed down on my bed and watched some tivo's shows after that

Lunch today:
1 bbq'd pork stead
1 bbq'd polish sasuage
3 thinly sliced pieces of homemade bread
1 small bowl of salad (without dressing...I'm teaching myself to eat a bit healthier)

A Saturday and a half

woke up at 7am to a downpour. 8am ride was rescheduled to 9 after the rain had stopped. 56 miles with John and Nathan, CBC guys that are both stronger than I am. Came home, showered, and left Columbia around 1. Drove straight to grandma and grandpa's old house for the yard sale. Was there until 5 something helping move and throw away crap.

Just got back to Scott's not long ago after seeing Mr. and Mrs. Smith at Barry Woods. Actually a great movie...much better than I expected.

Highlite of the evening. Time spent at HPC (Erica I said "hi" for you). I miss you camp. I'll be back sometime.

Driver kills

his mother

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Jun/20050610News005.asp

How could you live with yourself after that?


In happier news. It's Friday and I've only got a couple hours of work left.

Night cookin

Tested out the breadmaker last night. Got a loaf of honey wheat bread finished at 2 this morning. It works great and is really easy to use.
Also made spagetti and a 2 layer cake last night.

Why? Well my excuse is that I never got a birthday cake so I had to make my own...but the real reason is probably all the cooking magazines I've been looking at while sitting around here at work. I've probably got about 7 of them in my bag right now.

Otherwise I've done a terrible job of waking up early enough to ride. I've ridden exactly zero mornings this week. A little over 4 hours on Sunday, 2 1/2 hours on Tuesday and that's it. If I'm feeling guilty enough I'll jump on the trainer for as long as possible when I get home tonight.
I did post a message on the cycling discussion board asking for people to ride with me in the morning, so if some are interested then I believe my morning cycling ratio will improve.


Lunch today:
Grilled chicken with a bunch of salad
Grapes
Apples
Granola Bar
2 slices homemade bread
*NOTE: It took me way too long to get this ready and into my lunch bag this morning...so it's gonna have to be done the night before if I want any chance of keeping this up

Mmmm...good

You ever bought a bread making machine from your boss? I have. She'll (the bread machine...not Judy) be going home with me in 45 minutes :)

Day 2

Easy day at work today. Only 4 hours.

Working 12-4, then paying the electricity bill before it gets shut off at home. Then grab my bike and head out to Tuesday Night Worlds at 2 Mile Prairie for some pain and suffering

Finally

I'm finally back to work.
Today I packed a supurb lunch. Grilled some chicken a few days ago...thew a piece into a bowl and added a bunch of salad mix so I'll have a homemade grilled chicken salad, with a bowl of mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, celery, baby carrots), some pretzels, and a granola bar.

6 hours left for my first work day of my summer.

Rode

60 miles a few minutes ago.
That means I got back a few minutes ago...not the ride took a few minutes. In fact it was a fairly painful 4 hours.

Yeppie skeppie

I'm 23 today....

Focus

I wish I was able to focus more on the good that happens than bad.

Today some great things happened. Met a couple guys with the Columbia Bike Club that turned what I thought was going to be a pretty shitty ride into a great building block for me.

Sometime I'll post a few of the things I've jotted down on a notepad to post about, but now's not the time.

Sucking and never gonna pass

Got my backside handed to me in the Tuesday Night Worlds ride yesterday. My heart rate gets up in the 190's and I basically have to slow down for a minute or two or risk killing passing out. A minute or two is a long time in cycling time and in that minute or two the people I'm with head down the road leaving me wondering why I've spent so much money to be a part of the sport.
After the ride was good...talked with some of the other people there for the first time. Pretty encouraging. (And one even sounded impressed that my heart rate was in the 190's during the ride)

Car failed its second inspection in 2 weeks. Fixed both the reasons it failed last week and today a new problem was caught. A broken spring in the back. This makes sense to me as it sometimes makes a funny rubbing noise on bumpy roads or quick corners.
Dad's gonna be happy.

Booger is in Europe now...yeppie skeppie! And her birthday present to me...a package of "Mofo Fruit Gum". Awesome. Front of the box says "CHECK OUT THIS SHEE-YAT!!". You should have got me two boxes though, one to frame and one to actually try the gum. Now I'm left to ponder whether or not I should eat the gum or keep the box intact as some kind of collectors item.

And my new money making scheme (aka giving plasma) is now thrown down the drains. 12 months have to pass between receiving a tattoo and giving plasma. I might never be able to give then considering I will be getting more tattoos.

My butt...

should be stronger than yours

Why?
Because just about every bike ride I go on it starts hurting so it must be gaining more muscle.

I've pretty much wasted this week away waking up around noon every day.

Had a really good ride Tuesday night just outside of Columbia. Hung on longer than I did the week before, definately pushing myself. The old heart rate went up to 193, an all-time high since I've had my heart-rate monitor. Was actually in Zone 4 (of 4) for more than an hour. Basically I was working my ass off....and though I felt like throwing up for a while I couldn't be happier with building I'm doing.
If I could make myself work like this when I'm out on the road by myself I'd probably be a lot stronger ride...but it hasn't happened yet.

and I've got no hair now. Decided to shave it off....and its treating me alright.


Lately I haven't been sure which is worse:
The super-busy times of work & school or no having anything terribly important to do (I do have plenty of stuff I could be doing...but am apparantly bad at self-motivation)

home

kinda sucks not feeling "at home" anywhere
Part of it has to do with issues I'm having with myself right now. The kind of issues that make you go "why'd I do that" or "why do I think this way" or "how come I used to think this but now I think this"...fun stuff like that. Stuff that no-one can answer for me, but I can't seem to find an answer for either.
It seems I've changed (I feel like I have) in the past year and I'm not exactly sure why? Or maybe I kind of know why and just don't like the reason?

It has been fun hanging out with Scott though. He's giving up his projector (a pretty big deal actually seeing as how it's his baby and couldn't replace it soon if anything happened) to a cousin for the weekend.

We're about to go buy him a paintball gun and later we'll test it out at the above-ground Jaegers paintball field. Can't wait considering its been a couple years since I've played. Though about getting my own paintball gun (much better than the one I bought some 7 years ago) a little less than a year ago but didn't do it. Maybe sometime in the next year...


AND...I haven't been to church once this year. NOT ONCE. No, I'm not writing this because I'm happy about it (though it would seem if I was that unhappy about it I would have drug my ass out of bed on a Sunday and went to church), but sometimes I like to think I'm being punished for this fact. Like something bad happens or I'm just feeling not so great and I'll think, "hey, maybe if you would have went to church any of the last 20 Sunday's this wouldn't be happening."
I suppose part of me not going to church is while the concept of church makes sense to me the actual act of sitting (and standing sometimes) and listening to someone talk to a big group of people annoys me...I'm not good at sitting still.
Thats it, I've thought about writing it for a while but never did.

Thanks Erica for the message you sent about what you recently learned...it meant a lot to me.
And while in Lawrence the other week for the Collegiate Cycling National Championships I ran into Chris from camp. I couldn't remember his last name right after, remembered it, and can't think of it...but it was great to see him. My first year as a Senior High Wilderness camper he was sort of the guy to look up to in the group. He seemed to make an extra effort to get me involved (since I'm no good at jumping into activities with people I don't know) in what everyone was doing.
And he tells me that cook George is married (or at least a one-woman man with a girlfriend) and is into riding bikes. Now if only I had an e-mail address...

Aight..enough of this warm laptop sitting on my lap (I think a Men's Health article told me that was a bad thing to do), time to use up some energy...

sometimes

words just aren't enough

Goodnight

Thank you God

Grades for the semester:
Health Psyc: A
Rural Soc-Amish: B-

Sad

Collegiate Cyclist

Read about this (he was still alive at the time) last Tuesday when a Wisconsin rider posted it on the MidWest Collegiate Cycling Conference (MWCCC) discussion board......

Click me

Check out http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/

When I'm down it helps get me happy again

It amazes me what we have locked inside us.

Hmmm part 2

I need a certain GPA this semester to be able to get back into the education program.
I'm worried I might not have that GPA. That would mean my illustrious career here at MU is over.

I have $30. I get paid this coming Tuesday and I'll be able to pay some overdue bills. Then I basically don't get paid for a month.
What am I going to do about this? Along with trying to spend as little as money as possible I'm going to finally finish putting another computer together and try and sell it along with some other stuff I've got around here that I don't need.

What to do about the Mizzou thing? I suppose its time to look into other options.


Otherwise things are going pretty well. Work went by pretty quick this past week. Worked 11am-10pm last Tuesday and it went by quicker than my 11-5 shift on Thursday. Had a great time in Lawrence watching the Collegiate Cycling National Championships and spending some time with a friend.
Then I had a great time with Scott, Tracy and a bunch of their friends at their house. Had my first real dose of Texas Holdem Poker and loved it. Actually won the final game at somethin' like 3:45am. (And damn if all those chips didn't look great in front of me)
I must say that its kind of hard for me to play sometimes. I normally "wear my emotions on my sleeves" so if I've got a good hand it can get real hard for me to keep a straight face. Went all in a couple times (I had many more chips than them so it was a nice ploy to ruin them) with a pretty damn good hand and just about hurt my face trying not to smile or grin too much. (Scott if you read this any more...my two 5's are still your daddy).
So I've got to find some people to play with around here.

That's enough for now...time to shower and clean up this room of mine.

yep

definately racin'. Not gonna be pretty, but I'm going to do it anyway. Went for a short suffer-fest a little while ago with Steve, the guy I'm riding with to STL.

I seem to remember being able to "float" with that bike, but definately not today. Threw it on the bike stand when I got back and realized that the front wheel immediately stopped every time I stopped spinning it. The front disc must have loosened up a little since I brought it back from the shop, causing the disc to rub against the brake pads the whole time I was riding earlier...kind of a relief because I know I'm slow but it shouldn't hurt as much as it did.
Put the wheel on the ground and tried to reshape the disc a little bit and it rolled a little easier. Guess I'll do the same thing in the morning before the race.

Wake up at 5am, leave Columbia with Steve around 6am. Good stuff

Depending on how much I'm hurting after the race either going home Saturday evening or Sunday to grab my car and give mom her Mother's Day present, getting to see me :)


*My heart rate monitor is interesting me now. Haven't been able to get my heart rate above 169 on the road bike in number of weeks (I must say I haven't done all that much riding though; my max heart rate the first time I tested was somethin like 185). I look down at my wrist on the ride earlier and see my BPM are at 178, and just about every time I looked at the screen it was around 170.
I've got a few theories as to why this is happening...but won't really know for sure until mid-june probably when I've got a whole lot more miles in.*

Racin'

looks like i might just race the mountainbike Saturday just outside of st. louis. That is of course unless I discover I already had something planned for saturday and just haven't thought of it.

I don't expect to do well, I've ridden once this week and it was slow. Only ridden the mountainbike once this year, and thats when I wrecked it and just got it back last week.

We'll see what happens

Chunky soup and Macs

Sitting in the Zone at a Mac eating some Campbell's Chunky soup. Doesn't get much better than that does it?
The Reflector has a nice Mac in it now also, got a G5 machine with a beautiful 23' HD monitor. Just a nice ~$3000 addition to what we've already got. Except I can give Final Cut Pro a try over the summer now (we'll see how it compares to Premiere Pro).

Today has been good...though I should be severly hurt for not having my paper done (or even close) yet. At noon i went out behind Townsend with Ted and Moon for a burger and dog to celebrate the Dean's retirement. As I told Judy I would, I didn't talk to a single higher-up there. Won't let "the man" get me down

Then I drove Ted's beast of a Vibe over to Circuit City so he could pick up a hard drive, which they were still unloading off a truck...so he was told to come back later.

A nice slowish bike ride and a shower later and I'm at the Zone with my soup, Pepsi, and Amish materials.

Great weekend

The weekend was great, made it back home safe last night around 9 I think. Wasn't driving the vehicle I thought I would be though. Something seems to be wrong with my clutch so its in Odessa for who knows how long to be looked at. I've got dad's beast of a grey truck. I rumbled down the highway last night at about 68mph, something I'm almost proud of considering how much self-restraint that takes for me.

Planned on staying up all night last night to work on my paper. It got to be about 2am and all I had gotten done (besides listening/watching to a couple episodes of CSI) was found a couple articles that might help me write my paper.
If I had been getting more done it would have been a good night to stay up all night. Just work 9-12 today, then I could have slept a few hours and gotten back to the paper. Now I'm pretty much screwed as far as all-nighters go. I'd basically be dooming myself tomorrow if I had one tonight. My 11-6 shift seems long enough when I'm full or rest, it pains me to think about what it would be like with zero rest.

hmmm...what to do, what to do

Good old wal-mart

So mom failed to tell me a big reason we're up here is for Booger's awards banquet. So I brough no dress clothes.

WAL-MART TO THE RESCUE. Yep, grabbed an outfit from wal-mart and damn if it doesn't look stunning, all $20 of it.


And I've crossed new boundaries. Downloaded some crack program to find out the WEP key for BVU's campus. I'm going to have to try it when I get home to see if it really cracks all WEP's that quick. Took me about 2 minutes to google a few words and download the program...and 10 seconds to find out the WEP. And I might mention that I know pretty close to zero about networks.

Time to head to the boog's banquet...

UPDATE: Booger won the big award of the evening...summer after this coming one (i believe) she'll be going to India to study as Ghandi did. Since I know basically nothing about it check out her blog http://leishajo.blogspot.com where I have no doubt she'll have to post something soon about it.

Boog - I'm proud of you

I'm off for a little walk around the lake. (Check out the link, click on the word "lake", in case you've never been to/heard about Storm Lake.) It really is a beautiful thing
Satellite picture of Storm Lake, Iowa

Favorite

Today is one of my Favorite Days....State Music Contest. And my building is one that gets used.

One of the few times I wish I was back in high school again


Glad it's friday...and I'm headed home later. Just work until noon, buzz to bike store to take back a chain cleaner and pick up something different, go home and partially pack for the weekend, go back to class to listen to last day of presentations (which is also the last day of class), meeting at work, back home to finish packing and then head to Odessa

No Go

Looks like I'll be in the Reflector about 40 hours a week this summer. No job at cycleX for me.
I would really like to be mad at them...but I can't bring myself to do it.
I'll just teach myself (with help from a couple manuals...hmmmm...I see a birthday present coming on) how to be a decent mechanic.

Other than a phone call

last night kinda sucked

Working in the Zone was alright, time went by pretty quickly since I was working on article reviews for Health Psychology. Got them done so I've officially done all the work that's required for that class.
What I didn't get much work done for is my Amish Community paper. Its coming up shortly and I'm definately behind. Guess my three hours in the Zone tonight will be spend working on it.

Basketball sucked. It is only the second time in the history of me I could tell very well that I'd eaten the wrong things during the day. (For the record yesterday I ate: 4 donuts for breakfast, 3 for lunch, and McDonalds for dinner). Got to the rec center and had nothing in me. I knew what I wanted my body to do but it wouldn't respond. The past few times I'm in there nobody could guard me even with a broom in their hand...yesterday grandma could have held me to 1 or 2 buckets (and thats without a broom).

I got frustrated...I really was playing so bad I wanted to leave...but another part of me said "damn it Andy, you put yourself in this situation so you're gonna have to get through it." So I kept on playing...and taking a beating from just about everyone there.

Overslept this morning, 20 minutes late to work, raining outside....a great day so far...

Not able to

unfortunately I was not able to test this buttered bread theory out yesterday evening.
As I'll be working in the Zone this evening I probably can't do it tonight either. And since I've got 0 of 8-10 pages written for next Tuesday it will probably have to wait until this weekend.
This weekend I'll be visiting Iowa so it looks like the experiment might take place in Booger's room (you got a toaster don't you?....don't worry if you don't...I could bring mine :)

Presentation coming up in a few hours. Definately the first time I haven't been nervous about giving one. I suppose being the State Pimp (errr...president) of SMSTA did give me a bit more confidence.....
after the presentation and writing 3 article reviews I'll be done with the class. Only a paper and an exam left (both next week) for Amish class, then my undergraduate career is finally over after 5 long years.

This just in

buttered toast always falls face down

As this was explained in a paper in 1995 I'm a mere 10 years late finding out about it. Guess I'm just good at not dropping my buttered toast.
Tonight's mission: butter a bunch of toast and drop it to see what happens...

Good Weekend

The weekend went by way too fast..but was a good one despite the lack of cycling and work on my paper.

I did however spend quality time with my XBOX and Midnight Club III: DUB. How many hours? More than you would guess.

Almost hard to believe that when my presentation is done in two days all that will be left for me as an undergrad is one class with a paper and a test.

And it looks like this weekend I might visit the wonderful state of Iowa with mom and dad. Hopefully their visit up there was not supposed to be a suprise because when Boog reads this it will no longer be one.
Hmmm....to bring my bike or not. Need the miles, don't know if Iowa people would try to run me over for wearing a Mizzou Cycling jersey or not. Guess I might find out. (I'm pretty sure I won't be taking the team jersey and shorts to Lawrence during Nationals weekend though...a cyclist has enough to worry about the way kansas people drive without them knowing you ride for MU)

different

Yesterdays ride was almost bad. Rode an Ashland loop and basically all the way into Ashland I was riding against the wind, which if you have ridden much you know that that equates to riding up a hill the whole time. So what is normally the best part of that ride for me sucked. As soon as I get the wind to my back I have to do some climbing.

And of course my first ride with only one contact in. About 10 miles in the wind got to my right eye and it started watering like a biatch. Messed with it for a little while and my contact popped out. tried to put it back in once but it burned like a mofo...so I gave up and decided as long as I've got one contact in I can see well enough to ride the next 30-something miles.

So with the wind and the lack of a contact I put in around 40 miles as apposed to the 50 or more than I had planned on.

Yesterday started off pretty well. Got to work on time, got my Amish mini-theme paper done before noon and visited with Jenny a little before class at 2. Turned my paper in right after class and went home for the ride.

Today has been alright. Amish wasn't too painful this morning, lunch (peanut butter sandwhich, some of Ted's chips, and a granola bar) was fine, and I'm getting a little bit of work done.
Don't feel too terribly bad about my big paper now since another person in the class hasn't even started thinking about it yet (never mind that she's got 2 kids to worry about too...so she's got an excuse)

Oh and I tried to post the odds Ryan and I gave the pope candidates a week or so ago but blogspot was messing up(which seems to have become normal when I'm trying to use it)...anyway the odds we gave Ratzinger were 8:1. I mean come on...the dude's 78 years old.

You might not know: (another type of post stolen from the one and only Erica Brooks)

first I'd like to congratulate myself for the longest title in blog history (don't bother sending me a link to a longer one, i'll ignore it).

NOTE: THIS IS LONG....SO RELAX...YOU'RE GONNA BE READING FOR A WHILE. I suggest taking a break every few minutes so you can really absorb what you're reading

So in honor of Miss Brooks here's some thing you probably don't know about me:


-When I was in elementary school I supposedly poked a hole in a bus seat with a paper clip. (now the hole was big and the paper clip was small so it still doesn't make sense to me, but I was indeed playing with the already made whole with my paper clip) I think this was the last strike that got me thrown off the bus for the year.

-And getting thrown off the bus gave me dish duty for a year. Something you don't want to have when your mom is an excellent cook and has a bajillion big pots and pans.

-I hid many said pots and pans in various closets and under sinks so that I would not have to wash them.

-I was what I refer to as a devil child. I got kicked out of a local grocery store for being caught stealing basketball cards. I'm lucky walmart never caught on because I'm sure they would have done more than just tell my parents (or tell my brother who told my parents). I also stole money from the jar mom used to put $1 bills in for lunch money. I don't really remember what I bought with it, I just remember reaching up there and grabbing a handfull of bills a few times.
I don't know what changed me, I guess I can think of a few events that probably helped...none of which are the spankings I used to get from dad
(I'll never forget walking out of the store and having to look at mom. The feeling: shame)

-Whats responsible for my involvement in cycling? A few years of asking for a decent bike and a nice outpour of emotion in front of mom one day (read: crying...alot) After the crying mom and I went to the bike store and I came home with what I would use a few weeks later in my first mountainbike race at Snow Creek

-I absolutely love where I came from. In fact I feel sorry for all of those people out there who say they want go somewhere because they don't like where they're at or where they're from. Many of the bike rides I go on around here remind me of some of the roads I would ride around back home. I've stopped a few times, gotten off the bike, and just enjoyed the feeling

THIS WOULD BE A GOOD SPOT TO REST YOUR EYES FOR A MINUTE.....go ahead....this page isn't going anywhere...




-When mom was sick (I was in junior high maybe?) I remember the first time I ever did the dishes just to help out. It was a big deal. I don't really know what led me to do them, it just felt like the right thing to do. And it sure suprised the heck out of mom. It was one of those points where I could really tell she was proud of me. A feeling you should be able to put in a jar and lock it up for life.

-I was a terribly shy kid growing up. I don't think I lacked confidence in anything (except how I looked), I was just not a social person. I'm still working at getting better at it now. I think some might see me as stuck up since I don't go out of my way to talk, truth is I'd love to talk to about anyone, I just didn't grow up that way and its a hard thing to change.

-I used to farm all over the house. Every Christmas I'd ask for a different piece of toy farm machinery. I had it all... combines, tractors (even a beast with the doubles in the back), plows, a hay bailer. I'd put up little fences all over my room to keep the cows and pigs from getting loose and I'd plow up a storm all down the hall. (Those toys are sitting happily in the attic at home right now)

-The first "kiss" i ever had happened at 4H camp. Imagine a funny looking little boy looking and a pudgy little girl standing by the pool. Girl just told him "shut up or I'll kiss you!". Of course little boy says something annoying and girl kisses him on the cheeck and runs off.
Yep...I'm the man.....and yes that was before college :)

-Pots and pans weren't the only things I used to hide. I got real tired of the sandwhiches mom would send with me to school (elementary) so I'd bring them home and hide them. I really have no idea why I wouldn't just throw them away at school, guess it never occurred to me.
It was always a great suprise when a couple weeks later I'd start to smell something funky and open a sock drawer or look in my closet and discover a mold filled sandwhich bag.


-I'll never forget the best football catch I ever had. It was during recess in 5th grade. Full out dive on the edge of what we made into a football field. That whole day all these cool athletic people were talking to me and telling me how awesome it was. Huge grass stains all over both knees of my jeans. I'm sure it would have ticked mom off if she hadn't already become so used to me tearing up my clothes all the time like that

-Then of course is the time cousin Danny and I stayed up all night planning a fishing trip for the next morning. We had all our fishing gear ready downstairs, just waiting for it to be light out enough for us to take off. I think dad woke up for some reason and came down to see what the heck we were doing. We did end up going to sleep that night but we also did go fishing (or at least stomping around the woods behind the house) the next morning.

-I can't even count the number of times Danny and I went back into the woods and came back with mud covering our clothes up to our knees. Shoes filled with mud and our feet. We made good use of the "mudroom". What can I say...we were good at mischief.

More entertainment to come...

Decent day after all

Yesterday turned out to be a decent day after all. Work passed by a bit slowly but passed nonetheless. Went home after work, changed into cycling stuff and sped over to Walts to meet a couple guys for a ride. Rode out North, then East, then South, and back to Walts. Around 35 miles in all...a pretty good amount for a ride that started close to 6pm.

Went home and showered and lounged around for a few minutes then had some soup for dinner. Headed to the library for the next couple hours to read an article from an Amish book thats on reserve there.
Lucky I was able to keep myself awake through it and took 3 pages of notes over the chapter. Got home close to midnight and went to bed.

Today:
Go home between work and class from 12-2 and eat something and get the bike and clothing ready for a ride after my work meeting.
Probably put in at least another 35 miles this afternoon with at least a couple guys.

Tomorrow:
Some Caring for Columbia service thing. Basically I'll be helping out at a Ronald McDonald house with a bunch of other people for a few hours in the morning.
Then putting in a good number of miles on the bike in the afternoon

Link of the day

stupid things

sometimes I do stupid things

for instance...wake up this morning a little after 7 and realize I'm gonna be late for work if I don't hurry up. Jump out of bed and start getting ready only to realize that today I have class at 9:30, not work at 8. So I lay back down wondering what the hell is wrong with me.

Fall back asleep after not very long (blame it on the way too comfortable bed and comforter) and wake up around 9:15. I don't even remember thinking about class but I managed to get back to sleep. Wake up again at 9:45 and realize I'm gonna be late to work again. (Something that judy said in an e-mail the other day "being late is the only thing you do that makes me say bad things about you, and you do it so well") So I get ready in about 8 minutes (that's from getting out of bed to walking out the door...and includes brushing my teeth) only to get to work and have Brittany say "well you're here early". Yeah, work doesn't start until 11, and its 10:02.
A great start to the day.

We'll see how the rest of it goes...

Tim, if you ever read this blog again great job with the design of that article...and that Shaq one on your site looks awesome too. You design people amaze me.

Mens Health

I love reading Men's Health, it always gives me something to think about.
A month ago I was reading to Judy and Brittany 100 ways to burn 100 calories (I think it was 100 at least...its been a while). Crowd favorites: making love for an hour, which Judy didn't seem to think was possible and the magazine said if you could do that then you don't need to worry about reading the rest of the ways.

Today we've got "Average Guy + Money", something that interests me very much now since I've got almost no money and probably won't for a while.
Average guy's annual income: $39,429
If he graduated from college: $54,069 (after years of teaching and coaching in a large district I could probably make this much)
% of men unhappy with the size of their paychecks: 49

How much the average guy is carrying in his wallet right now: less than $10 (I haven't had money in a wallet in a long time, haven't had any bills in my pocket for at least a couple weeks)

Amenities the average guy wants to add to ATMs:
1. Frequent withdrawal points (YES PLEASE)
2. Porn clips (hmmm)
3. Hot coffee (how about Red Bull?)

% of men who never balance their checkbooks: 53 (so Ronnell and I aren't alone)

Preferred way to pay:
1. Debit Card, 44% (thats me)
2. Cash, 28%

Percentage of guys who've given a stripper a $100 bill: 3
Average # of credit cards in a guy's wallet: 2.5 (3 for me)
Total amount he owes on those cards: $2742 (under 2 for me)

What half of men would pay for 5 extra years of healthy life: Nothing (what???)
What 19% would pay: $100,000


And more...but if you want to see it all you've got to get the magazine. April 2005 Men's Health

One side note: I read the other day that a man's brain isn't fully developed (or something like he isn't fully equipped to make important decisions) until the age of 25. I feel better about myself knowing this.