new book

The new PostSecret book comes out today!

Sign

One sign that the world is going to hell:

While subbing for a PE class today a girl asked me if my bike tattoo was "for Fat Tire brand". She seemed very disappointed when I told her no.

Long day

Had a super duper long day yesterday. From 7:30-3 I was a substitute at a middle school here in town. Then from 4-9:30 I was slaving away at Staples.

Was scheduled to sub for a Family & Consumer Science teacher, but things got switched a little bit and I wound up subbing for a paraprofessional in a special education (aka sped) classroom.

It almost breaks my heart sometimes to wonder why some people choose to reproduce when they probably shouldn't. Who suffers? Everybody. The kids, society, blah blah blah (now is when i tell you to read Freakonomics!)

Bike ride a couple days ago:




































And my favorite part of working at staples. You think scooter's rock, try this thing!

Diggin

Really digging Anthony Hamilton's "Pass Me Over" right now.

I mean, how can you not like a song that starts out with "Another day, a chance to make another chance."

Christmas at the casino

Stayed up late Sunday night reading my Senior Year memory book thing and then reading through my four high school basketball memory book things.
Rolled out of bed sometime after 10am Monday and had all sorts of great food with the Reynolds family and then dinner with the Cruwell family, a few of them at least.
Then cousin Danny and I headed to the plaza to walk around for a little while, then we decided to spend the rest of the evening in a casino, so we headed to Harrah's. A few drinks later and just missing $20 we headed back home.
Finally rolled into bed at around 3:30 am for some ZZZzzzz's.

Had to work at Staples today. I guess after 4 years of bitching about not having a job over the break (since the computer lab is closed during breaks) I finally got my wish and had to drive back to CoMo.

That's all.
Yep, all done.
Goodnight

Cold toes

Just got back from a ride on the MKT/Katy trail to Rocheport with Lou. On the way there I ran over a squirrel. He couldn't believe it, until one of the little bastards ran under his wheel on the way back towards Columbia.

Got back about 40 minutes ago and I'm just starting to feel my toes. On the way back they felt like big paperweights. Couldn't really feel individual toes, just a clump of muscle and bone.

Student teaching ended fine and the paper from last semester finally got written, even if it was/is a 11 page piece o' crap.

Now I'm helping Staples out a bit. Worked Saturday and Sunday, and work today through Saturday. Off Sunday and Monday, and back to work on Tuesday. Yeppie skeppie.

And this just in, I'm terrible at selling things. Why? Because half of it I wouldn't buy myself and can't bring myself to tell people they really need an extended warranty when I've almost never bought one myself.
And how the f' should I know what this printer has over this printer. I can read the label the same as you can "mr./mrs. I don't know what printer to buy". I swear the other guys that work there can pull facts out of their backside on demand, because there's no way they can memorize every little detail about all the printers, digital cameras, etc we have in there.

That's about it. Now that I can feel my toes it's time to shower and get dressed for work.

It's official

I'm in Columbia Public Schools system for subbing. Got my first call a couple minutes ago by the automated system. Too bad I'm still student teaching (tomorrow is the last day), or I could take the job and make eighty bones for the day. (While typing this I just got another call...one from Rock Bridge High School for a business ed. teacher...doh...)


In other news I was really discouraged for a while at school today. A day that I went to a conference in KC my host teacher had the students write a sentence or two about what they thought about me and my teaching. There were some really good things, and some things that made me think I need to find a new career path. Actually most of the things that some students didn't like were things that other students did...so I've come to terms with what they said. Maybe I'll share some of them in the next couple days.
One guy did say that me "standing over" him sent shivers down his spine, but then again this is a student who plans on writing a book about how the US political system is failing and currently has a 13% or so in the class. Only two students put their names on their little evaluations..he wasn't one of his. I could just tell who it came from.
Ooop, that's three subfinder calls. Time to login and say I'm not available for tomorrow so i don't get calls all night.

Peace out, time to write an overdue paper

iTunes love

I love iTunes. Why? Because when I hear a song on the radio I like I can find it's name in iTunes' Store and acquire it.


I'm playing in a Columbia Parks and Rec league these days. Something to get me back to fat, instead of the extra fat I have been the past couple months. I love the exercise and competition, but today I played like hell. Couldn't make a shot. I knew it before the ball was halfway to the bucket....they just didn't feel right.

If I had a laptop mounted to my car with this website permanently pulled up I could have a few pages of stuff to write about. I think about so many things when I'm driving, especially after I've worn my body out.

.....

Been a while

It's been a while since I updated this biatch. That'll change soon, just not right this second.
So much to do right now, and I don't feel like doing any of it.

Got it

Got the new Postsecret book yesterday. Read a few pages a minute ago. It's good. Real good :) You should get it. (Now is when you leave your computer and visit your local bookstore or go to another website and order it).

Student teaching is going well. I'm having a few problems with students talking too much, so i wish I had time to read all sorts of books about different ways to get simmer down. But I don't.

Time to get more stuff done....

Anywhere but here

Today I'd like to be anywhere but here.
Really has nothing to do with school, there's just too much going on in my brain.

1. My car's not agreeing with me. It thinks it should shine it's rear brake lights all the time, I disagree.
2. I've lost a 2gb flash drive. If it was empty I wouldn't care too much. But it had all sorts of student teaching papers, stuff for the class I'm taking, and other various papers and forms on it.
I know I used it on campus in class Monday. I know I used it to update a paper. I'm pretty sure I remember feeling it in my pocket when I got into my car after. What I don't remember is if I ejected it from the computer and pulled it out. Maybe I didn't feel it in my pocket and it stayed in the computer and someone decided it would be a nice present to themselves. So now on top of losing the flash drive I have to rethink my theory that people are inherently good.
3. As I was e-mailing my supervising teacher last night about all this stuff that was going wrong so she would understand if I seemed a little stressed, the back of the chair I was sitting in broke. So now if I want to sit in the chair I have to make sure to sit upright, or I'm going to go tumbling.

And now that I've written all this...I still don't feel much better about it. Damn you online journal.

Warm fuzzies

Every had a conversation with someone (face to face, through e-mail, however..) and felt really good afterwards?

I've had a couple conversations, one through e-mail and one face to face, with a couple people who help me in my chosen profession one day that have made me felt pretty good.

That's all.

Bye.

No inspiring title for this one

Haven't blogged in a little while. Why? Because I've been busy and stuff...and unlike the first couple weeks of school when i wasn't doing so much and would blog at school, I've got plenty to prepare for class now.

**A side note: I can't check any gmail at school, so if you want to send me something send it to my Mizzou address.**

Don't feel like saying much right now, too much to think about with lesson plans for the next couple weeks and assignments that are due in the class I'm taking.

The recent school shooting have been a little disturbing though. By a little I mean a whole lot.

Peace Out

suck

I sucked today

Takin over

So I've supposedly taken over one hour for a while. And with this I'm supposed to be doing lesson plans for my seminar leader (teacher isn't too worried about all the stuff being written out as long as I've got a plan in my head)

But with my second evaluation due at the end of the week I'm supposed to turn in some lesson plans. Hmmm...what to do. Create some lesson plans or just tell her our (my host teacher and I) outlook on them and see how she decides to tell us we need to be doing them.

---

Got here this morning and decided it was about the last place I wanted to be for various reasons. Felt like crying for the first 15 or 20 minutes because I have so much I need to be doing now besides being the best student teacher ever (which hopefully will land me a job around here...and I need a full time job!)then I got into what we going to be doing today and simmered down. 5th hour is mine so we'll see how that goes.

Power

Words are powerful. If I could have one thing it would be more control over the language I speak.


"I want to hear a poem where ideas kiss similes so deeply that metaphors get jelous.
Where the subject matters so much that adjectives start holding pronoun rallies at city hall."
- Steve Coleman. Def Poet.

Bone Thugs-n-shopping mall kids

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony will be at the Blue Note tonight. I'd love to see them, and one of the guys on the cycling team could possibly hook me up, but there's no time for that business (plus they probably come on before I get out of work).

Went to my first after school meeting (other than an FBLA meeting last week) today at the Career Center. Not bad, long, but it was bearable.

Taught two class periods today. Both went well. I was happy.

I also stayed after class yesterday and talked with my instructor for a while (among other things she was the Assistant Director of the Career Center a few years ago) and she's going to work with me on assignments. Letting me plan stuff for the classroom and just talk about it in class while others actually present theirs. And she agreed to write me a recommendation, which I was very pleased about.


As far as the shopping mall stuff in the title. At the Career Center meeting they discussed how the Columbia Mall peoples decided that they had enough of kids swarming the mall on weekend nights and they wanted something to be done about it. Their idea was to hire local teachers at $15/hour to watch the kids and basically teach them how to act civilized.

I'll give you a minute to think about that. Actually...I'll give you until the next time I post something up.

Kick to the nuts

Rode a big tree loop today...or part of it. Got a big metaphorical kick to the nuts less than half way through the ride when I realized how week I was, partly due to not riding and part due to weighing more than I should.

Forgot that the MS150 was going one this weekend (remembered yesterday, but forgot overnight) and part of the Central Missouri one (there's also a KC and a Springfield one I believe) goes around the big tree loop, just in the opposite direction that I was going. So I waved at about a billion riders and half of them though I was crazy for wanting to go back and ride over the hills again.

One of the rest stops was by the Katy trail down on the flats and I considered stopping in and grabbing some watermelon or pb&j sandwhich, but I was hurting too make to do it. I went ahead and took the Katy to MKT trail and limped home.


Guess that's about it for now. Need to grade some assignments and iron about 8 shirts.

Screwed, tired, and can't think of anything that might rhyme with either

So I'm pretty sure the last landlord screwed Em and I over. Out of the $650 deposit we expected to get back we actually received something like $350.
He took off like $150 for carpet cleaning, some more for paint touchup on some of the walls, and even $10 for cleaning out the fridge more than we did.

If I had time and money I'd visit a lawyer and try to get our money back (law says we could sue for up to twice the amount we're owed). But I don't have the time, money, of any kind of pictures as proof of the condition it was in when we left.
So I won't think about it any more for now, I'll just leave the situation with a big f*$k you to him.

In other news I about dozed off a couple times 6th and 7th hour yesterday.

Dinner

What's for dinner tonight? Alcohol, with a side of real food.

It's been a long day.

That's funny right there

"Fun Fact: Lance Armstrong and Matthew McConaughey are throwing a party at Lance's place tonight at 10 p.m. for the Texas cheerleading squad. But no male cheerleaders and no fatties allowed! No exceptions." [from ESPN's Page 2]

I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.

No fatties...hee hee haa haa

---

And yes I did read the article and post this during class. Taught again last hour...good stuff.

Teaching and stuff

So I taught my first lesson ever to a group of high school students today. It went well. Wasn't really nervous because I've taught some classes kind like the one I did today to college of education students.

Mouth is recovering very well from the wisdom teeth extraction. Only have one spot that's still healing on the outside. It has got to be where the initial cutting happened because it's beside one of my current teeth.

Tomorrow is Friday, which means I get to wear jeans and a polo to school. Yeppie skeppie.

Finally played some

ball last night at the Rec with a couple guys I worked with at Staples. I sucked (though I was probably still better than you :) but we won most the games. My calves were locking up towards the end...oh the sweet pain.

Meet the parents night at Hickman was yesterday evening. We just had 2 parents show up for our 3rd hour (the first class we have) and after that we had between 4 and 6.
It was good time.

Where art thou sleep

I was up late last night picking up a copy of Saint's Row for the 360 so I didn't get to sleep until around 1:30'ish.

Now I keep almost falling asleep here in the Reflector.
And I've gotta learn to accept coffee if I want to survive student teaching.

Tomorrow I might make a peace offering to coffee, maybe a shiny mug or something...we'll see.

On a side note the phrase of the year is officially "I'm gonna come at you like a spider monkey"
Memorize it, there will be a quiz.

bye bye wisdom teeth

So the operation went fine. I remember talking one minute and the next minute waking up in the "recovery" room with dad. Other than having my right cheek a little puffier than normal I felt fine. Haven't used any pain medication, mainly because there hasn't really been much pain.
Went and saw Incincible Friday evening. Decided beerfest wouldn't be the best movie to see because I couldn't smile or laugh real good. So that'll happen another time. The movie was great!

Did just a little bit of work around the house yesterday when I wasn't watching old episodes of Entourage and icing my face. So far in this place among other things I've installed a ceiling fan upstairs and a new light/fan switch downstairs in my room. No electricutions yet :)

Looks like today will be more icing of the face, a little work on the Dual Slalom course (the Mizzou hosted mountainbike race is this coming weekend...which means the clothing-optional race is this saturday night/sunday morning :), and I've got to look at the curriculum for school because I'll probably be teaching a couple lessons this week.

Later

Invincible

It looks like Invincible actually comes out tomorrow also....I should almost skip getting my teeth pulled and turn Beerfest and Invincible into a double-header!

Being put out, and why only a few

The first couple of school days have been good. I'll miss the first friday of the year because I'm having my wisdom teeth pulled out. They said they'll be putting me to sleep, hopefully they'll wake me back up afterwards. Dad is coming up to get me there and make sure I get home in one piece. As of now I expect to be cleaning and arranging the duplex part of Saturday and Sunday...and I'd really really like to be able to go see Beerfest Friday night, but that's probably a long shot.

There are two Business teachers at Hickman. That's right, 2 business teachers at the largest high school in the state*. Today I found out that 9 years ago there were 6 or 7, and slowly that number has gone down. I also found out that one of the teachers is retiring at the end of this year. Would I love to have that job? Absolutely. Do I have a chance? I honestly have no idea. I sure hope it's at least a maybe.

As far as the shrinking number of business teachers at HHS, Jeaniene, my teacher, and Vicki, the other teacher who is retiring, think it has to do with the supposed lack of demand of the business classes. Even though the majority of student that come out of there list Business as the subject they'll likely go into after high school there's not enough of them signing up for the classes. And even some classes that do have a large enough demand to warrant a class aren't created because the powers above, the superintendent, don't want to hire more business teachers.

Another part of the demand problem is that there are soooooo many classes available at Hickman. They have a frickin' culinary program in the school. It's "taken off" the last few years so there's a packed class every hour. Other classes like it, a huge amount of AP offerings, and a college town that where students are more likely to think they can become a brain surgeon so they take all those AP classes could also aid in the destruction of the business department.
To be 100% truthful, Hickman only employs one business teacher, Vicki, as Jeaniene is a Career Center employee technically.

*While Hickman does not have the largest number of students in the building, in the state, it is considered the largest because the schools that have a larger number have freshman in the building while Hickman only has sophomores through seniors.

Yes

I am still alive. I've just been doing, or trying to do, stuff.

What kind of stuff?

Moving to a new place, trying to organize a new place, fixing a few things in the new place, trying to prepare myself for student teaching, very very slowly trying to read for a paper that should have been completed this summer, and now student teaching.

I don't know the last time I blogged, probably before Scott went and got hitched.

So a quick recap before I get to writing a paper for class, reading for the overdue paper, and reading for class.

Scott and Tracy's wedding was great. Took pictures on the plaza and it was hot as balls, and the limo was a bit toasty after we all packed back in...but overall it was a good shindig.

Moving sucked, too many trips in a truck with no AC (would have sucked with the AC too).
Unpacking sucked, and more still needs to be done.

Missed puddle jumpers for the first time in a while this year. Too much to do around here.

Today was my first day as Mr. Reynolds at Hickman HS. School was long, lunch was short. My host teacher (for the next year to be knows simply as "my teacher") and I have the first two hours as planning and supervising hours, so from 3rd through 7th hours we've got kids. By 7th hour today we were both pretty tired. I'm pretty sure if I would have been doing most the talking I would have lost my voice, especially after I was talking all yesterday evening while training a new Reflector employee.

So yes, I'm still working in the Reflector. That, Hickman, and a class on Mondays will now continually kick my butt.

That's it for now...peace out holmes

A great tuesday

If just about every day of the rest of my life was like yesterday I think I'd live a happy life (assuming I made enough $ to live)
Went to work, came home and played one game of NCAA Football, then went to The Duece.

What's The Duece? It's a new bar in town that has two outdoor volleyball pits attached to it. Two sweet new volleyball pits! The most professional nets I've ever played on and plenty of people to play against. It was awesome!

And tonight I'm heading to STL to pick up a sweet new fixed gear bike. Fixed gear means if the bike is moving so are the pedals. This makes for a great workout but a really awkward ride in the beginning.

Here she is:


Gonna buy a lock and maybe some new tires for it with a gift certificate to the local store. If i can work it out I might be riding it to Hickman high school most days of the week this coming semester.

Good day

It's a great day for iTunes radio today. Ultra Hits Radio has kept me going for the past 3 1/2 hours with jamz.

Right now: Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved


On an unrelated note, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings can go to hell.

Quite the weekend

Started off the weekend trying to keep Aviyon occupied. We ran around the house for a while and then after a few attempts I finally got him to go to bed. Saturday morning FedEx dropped off NCAA Football 2007 for the 360. Pretty exciting seeing as how it doesn't officially come out until tomorrow. Played it for a while and eventually decided to head home.
Went and saw You, Me, & Dupree withe Erin and a couple of her friends...good stuff. Then played a bunch of football with scott in his basement.

Sunday brought on a search for a Saint's Row demo (a new game thats a lot like the Grand Theft Auto series) and then dad beat me, maybe for the first time, in 11 holes of golf before we had dance class.

Yes I did say dance class. Cousin-in-law (if that's not an official title it is now) Tamara and cousin James taught Scott, Tracy, me, Tamara (tracy's sister), mom, dad, uncle jim & donna, tracy's parents, and cousin sarah how to foxtrot.
I think it's enough to say I've got mad dance skills and now I have an outlet to use those skills. :)
It was actually a really good time, and I got some practice doing the square while showering last night/early this morning.

---

Scott's bachelor party is this coming weekend and the wedding the week after. Guess I better start looking up Will Ferrell and 2Pac quotes for my best man speech. (You don't think I'm joking do you...)

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Gotta check out this clip from the ESPY site (click on skip intro in the top right corner, then "see the winners", then "more videos", then "Ricky Bobby on ESPN") It's beautiful! Talladega Nights will be the greatest movie ever, or at least greatest ever since Old School...

I done good...and more I-Truth

Article about "An Inconvenient Truth: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Jul/20060713News007.asp

Like I posted after I saw it...you need to go see it. I want my All-Star basketball playing, top of the charts singing, Olympic playing, US bumpercar driving team grandchildren to have the opportunity to live.

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I produced my first SISLTCast radio show today. It was actually pretty cool. My boss's boss talked with K-State's associate dean of education about a technology and their teacher education program. (Next show is with Univ. of Texas-Austin) With the help of a staff member that's done a ton of shows I recorded it, edited it, and now it's on the web. Check it out at click here..its a long link. Just click on QUICKTIME or MP3 at the bottom of the page.
Other than toning down some of the audio levels I edited out when he accidentally dropped the call with mrs. k-state, and at the end when he said that the great engineers would edit out the part where he dropped the call.


So today is a good day. I actually did something...not just sat at work all day trying to read but not doing very well because my eyes would rather sleep.

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In other news I signed up for the Praxis yesterday. It can suck it. Cost me like $150 for the stupid thing. Had to pay a $40 late fee because I didn't sign up quick enough, which is kinda hard to do when you don't have money.

Tired ...and Texas

So we finally made it back safe from Texas yesterday.

That traffic accident I blogged about on my Treo ended up with us turning around on the highway and taking a few back roads back onto the highway a few miles up the road. We got back on the highway a little more than 2 hours after we were stopped.

Though mom probably didn't know (she was alseep part of the time) we took a little freestyle through Dallas and mapquest on the Treo helped me find my way back to I-35.
With help from my friends at Red Bull and Starbucks I got mom and I to Norman, Oklahoma at about 7:30am.

Mom drove for 2 or 3 hours and then I drove us from one of those inbetween-the-roads rest stops in kansas (from now on kansas will not be capitalized, as it sucks) to Dillards in Independence, and finally back home.

It was a great trip, a little more driving and a lot less exercise than I'd prefer, but it was good. Got to see some different parts of Houston, vist The Galleria, see where the Texans play, and saw an actual switchboard from back in the day (in mom's aunt's garage)(I don't know what I would be called in relation to mom's aunt, and I'm tired...so mom's aunt will work. Feel free to comment and enlighten me.)

It was about as humid there as it's been here, except their grass looked a whole lot better than ours looks here.

That's about it for now, when I got back to columbia yesterday I relaxed for a few minutes and then decided it would be a good time to play ball with some guys. This wasn't the best idea for a few reasons. One of them being I keep dozing off here at work, so the next 9 or so hours of work should be super great.

still...

past midnight...about 8 tow trucks, 2 life flight helos, 20 or so cop cars, around 10 ambulances, and one piece of road kill just outside moms window...we're still in the exact same spot. hopefully in the next 15 minutes we'll be in another spot further up the road.

god help those in the accident

texas doesn't

want mom and I to leave. after 1 best buy, 1 target, and 1 walmart we finally were on the way towards dallas when an accident happens not too far in front of us. been sitting here for a while now and might be a while longer....

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

Went and say "An Inconvenient Truth" this afternoon at the Missouri Theatre downtown with Brady and Andrea from the cycling team. Really informative movie...if you care about your children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren's health you should watch it, or at least check out the website http://www.climatecrisis.net/

---

Went to a hip-hop club last night with Sheriece, and met some other ballers there. How do I know it was a hip-hop club? Cause it was written in spraypaint in huge letters in various places on the walls. It was a good time, except for the two parking tickets my car got between 10pm and noon.
So you're wondering why my car was downtown overnight? We'll just say I didn't feel like driving home so I got a ride and rode my bike back at noon to retrieve it.

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In other news crazy stuff has been going on with the Tour De France, to be known only as the TDF from now on. Three of the top riders out of it. Two for possibly doping and one who joined a team that had so many riders kicked off that he couldn't race (tour rules say you must have a minimum number of riders on a team).

---

Now I'm off to work on my upper body tan while trying to throw a ball into a hoop across the street

Breaking News!!!!!!!!!

Booger's getting gangsta.


How do I know?


She said "fer riiiiiiiizzle!" I guess that's what people say in India?

---

Now I must go and plan booger and my international trip to be taken in a year or so...

Craigslist, LCD screens, and who knows what else

So CoMo is a part of craigslist now. Good stuff. Posted an add for Sand Volleyball players while I was bored at work today.
Why?
Cause Sand Volleyball kicks @ss and I don't know enough people that play.

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Golfing with dad and scott this past weekend was cool. We all are terrible, and there wasn't anyone playing right behind us so it was a good time. I actually got a birdie (for the un-educated out there a birdie is when you score below the par. That means you done good) on a par 3. Then the sky decided it wanted to pour down some water on us (which is kinda strange considering how beautiful it was outside when we started!) and in the commotion of getting our stuff back to the vehicle I dropped my 4 day old Treo on the ground. Eventually we made our way to 54th Street Bar & Grill, which was great, and even better that scott paid for it :)

---

So I mentioned that my 4 day old Treo has a broken screen. Yeah, not what you want to happen after you can barely afford it off ebay and definately can't afford another one for a while. But good news my friends, I'm going to fix it myself! Found a video online of how to do it, and ordered a replacement LCD screen on ebay for about $50! Should get it by friday and be fixed up by the weekend.

---

So i'm trying something new today. I'm using horizontal rules instead of the usual breaks that I make? Why, because i can. And maybe its easier to see where sections start and end without making too much black space between. Yes, i am crazy like that.

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Guess that's about it for now. My mission when i get off work tonight is to find a grocery store that sells pancakes on a stick. Gots to have some pancake on a stick!

TreoAlarm Review

So I've found a few programs that look like they are going to come in handy with the new Treo (I say look like because I've only had it a day now).

There are really two that stand out right now, the extremely common VolumeCare and TreoAlarm. With those programs I've got more sound coming from the phone and its able to wake me up in the morning and tell me what the weather looks like.

TreoAlarm look very promising as I was looking for a way to get weather reports sent to me a new way. (The old way was through a daily text message from a local newspaper, which deducted ~30 text messages from my plan per month.) And seeing that I used my old phone as an alarm clock every morning I was needing an alarm program also. I found both in this dandy program.

Likes:
- Extremely easy to set up weather program
- The option for 6 different alarms (used 5 different alarms on the Razor)
- How easy it is to set up each alarm with what day you want, the time, ability to update the weather, and snooze times. This is probably the best part of the program for me.
- Being able to view the next 6 days forecasts

Dislikes:
- The main page is a little busy with all the weather information (includes barometer, dewpoints, visibility). I would like to see a set of options included to see this on another page or just leave it off.

New phone!

Finally got the new phone today.

Just got my gmail and school e-mail set up on it, just in case i'm away from a computer and need to check my e-mail (ie. at home and don't want to use the dial up)

Good stuff!

Forget the razor

The Motorola Razor had its time, but it has passed. Now comes the Palm Treo 650 (or 700w or 700p if you're wild like that). I should have one in the next few days.

In other news I played sand volleyball for the first time in a long while yesterday...it was sweet!!! I also worked and rode the bike in the morning and accepted a big dose of humble pie on the bike in the evening.

People always leave

Just found out a friend that just finished his doctorate is headed to Yale to teach a week from today. He just got a bike this past semester, so its a shame i won't get to ride with him.

In other news today I get to find out what it feels like to work 8-4 at one job and then 5-9 at another.

Cell phone pics

Where mom and I ate in downtown Omaha after dropping booger off for her trip to India. If you're around Omaha check this place out, some really cool shops and some needs passages between a few of them.


More downtown omaha



What a long island tea should look like!


One of the new kittens at home


Mothers day bbq


Before the grilling


Chicken on the grill


'burgers, hotdogs, chicken, pork chops



Desert after the bbq



Booger, aka lil' freda


Little girl in at a race in Kentucky. Helmet way too big, kept talking about bikes and her brother.

Da Vinci Code

Just got back from it.

It was good.

Been a while...again

So before my last post a few minutes ago (was planning on going to the rec, but after work and playing ball yesterday my body needs to rest) I hadn't blogged in a while.

Why is this? Because I've been f'n busy.

Classes had neverending projects. It seemed like I was always at work, and when I wasn't I made sure to do nothing but lay down on my bed and watch a tivo'd show or two.
Well either that or the occasional ball playing at the rec or even less occasional bike ride.

Actually my riding this year has been downright disgusting. I'm guessing I've put in around 400-500 miles this year. Doesn't sound too bad to you? How about if I would have been happy with closer to 2000 or more. Not looking so hot now am I. So the last couple rides I've done I've gotten toasted. No leg strength. Hardly any sprint in me, and its easy for me to feel the difference between my legs right now and last summer. I guess we'll see what happens in the next few weeks, and throughout the summer.

Staples has been ok. It's not easy on the joins as the whole building is a hard floor. Today I finally felt like I kind of know what I'm doing. Like I've finally reached that comfort zone where you understand what's going on and you can answer most questions. Maybe the time will start going by faster there.

I'm going to be helping out with an online radio show through SISLT SISLTCAST this summer so I've started trying to figure out how that all works. Its the reason I've gotten a pay raise there so I should probably earn some of it.

Classes are finally over, for now. We'll see what happens in the fall when I attempt to student teach and take my final methods class at the university.

That's about it for now. Enough brain power has been wasted today.

Mountainbike

So the current U23 (under-23) National Champion has his last team edition mountainbike up for sale on ebay. Talked to him a little bit today out of curiousity and it sounds like the bike would be a great fit for me. If only it was a couple months from now.

Check it EBAY

Easter

Had a really good Easter. Booger came to visit me after my masssive shift at Staples on Saturday...we had a great time walking around downtown, eating some pasta, having the best hot fudge sundaes ever (from Andy's Frozen Custard), and watching one good movie and one crazy Mexican movie (or more like a crazy disappearing mexican movie).
Then we got all gussied up for church Sunday.

Thanks for coming boog! :)

What in the LL Cool J, holy moesha

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/us/15omaha.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
also
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/04/14/omaha.schools.ap/index.html

Seriously, what is wrong with people?

Teach for America

can suck it.

I already disliked the idea, but now that I've read an article about it and learned a little more I dislike it even more.


Grrrr....

K, time to get back to work.

Blog,

I don't like your tone.
You're going to time out.

Peace out,
Andy

2 Words

Nacho Libre

Hi blog

Dear Mr. Blog,

I'm Andrew. Sorry we haven't talked in such a long time. I've been terribly busy the past few weeks, and a complete bum this week. With all that going on I chose to ignore you. Please forgive me.

Today I decided to do something worthwile for spring break...I rode the bike (though cleaning up my room the past couple days is somewhat worthwile). I've realized I'm fat again. Fat, in the way I use it is a relative term, as normally when you can see a person's abs you wouldn't consider them fat. But the bike confirmed that I am, so that's all there is to it. Hopefully the weather will hold up tomorrow and i can continue this process of getting un-fat.

In other news, I'm almost addicted to the concept of "Gamerscore" with the Xbox360. I'm not sure why, but I am just about as likely to play a game to improve that score as I am to play a different part of a game because it's fun. (If you don't know what a gamerscore is...you better ask somebody)

I'm not really looking forward to finishing off spring break with 4 days of work, but I guess that's just the way it is.

I am also in a quandry for this summer and next semester. I'm getting paid more at the Reflector now ($10/hr), and supposed to work 40 hours a week there this summer. So what to do with my job at Staples? And I probably shouldn't try and work while I'm student teaching next semester. Hmmm...

Well its been nice chatting with you blog. We shall meet again soon enough.

Your friend,
Andrew

Not cool

Being sick is not cool. NOT COOL!!!!!


In other news, help a brother out and sign up for an account at this site so I can get a free xbox 360

Froze Toes

Froze Toes was today. Weather was great, and I was much better prepared than last year. Good times

f'n neiman marcus

has plain white t-shirts for $70!
(Disclaimer: I get my white tee's at walmart. Something like 3 for $6.)

With the help of AskMen.com I'm learning going to learn how dress up fashionably. Mom and I just picked up 3 1/2 nice button up shirts a couple weeks ago for the price of one of these fancy (read: plain) white tee's. What the hell f'n neiman marcus?

Alright, gotta find out about this whole sweater over button down shirt revolution that's going on...

Mizzou, all the shame that you are

It would be nice to say something nice about Mizzou's leadership, but that's been hard to do the past year.

Presiden Floyd - you're wife had some recorded conversations that made her sound as racists as any dude running around in a white sheet and funny looking white hat might be.
You have made plenty of decisions about this campus without any input from students.
You allowed ricky clemons into your house, and onto your ATV...and we all should know what that led to.
You issued a statement last night that was basically a lie, and a spokeperson had to clarify it so that later down the road you didn't get caught in it.

Mr athletic director Alden - you suck...basically enough said.
You're quite the fibber. Alright, you may consider it usual policy of the athletic department, but the rest of us out here in the real world understand your policy to be bull$hit.
I appreciate the shirt you gave me a couple years ago because I was wearing a Southern Indiana Basketball shirt on, but I would rather give you back that shirt, and you actually do your job.

Mr Snyder - you kinda got screwed. I would feel for you if you could get a talented group of players to win. BUT YOU CAN'T.
(Blah blah blah...our players have never been that great...BLAH BLAH BLAH...only a couple have made it to the NBA. It's a team game, that not having as much talent argument doesn't fly with me.)
One more thing, it pains me to see the best true freshman in the country, who is from Missouri, playing in any other state than missouri. You got 3 of the last 4 Missouri players of the year. 2 are still on the team, 1 underachieving in most peoples eyes, and the other might turn out to be a dud, the other no playing for Missouri State. The one that could have made the difference...you didn't get. You would be employed at this university right now if you had.

Mr Pinkel - you're no better than Snyder. In fact, you may be worse. Congratulations!

Chancellor Deaton - don't know that much about you. You came in with big shoes to fill. I've read more good things you've done than bad, so hows abouts you stop playing in the snow in new york and come pimp slap all these people.(yes Floyd too...)

Thats all..enough ranting for now

Learned

I learned more about grandpa at his funeral that I ever did while he was alive. How? This slideshow

(It may take a little while to load, if you're on a dial up you might as well download it)
Download it here

Thanks go to Uncle Tom and Uncle Jim for getting these pictures put together and making the slideshow

too late

In the past two days I've gotten calls from 2 places I applied to in December asking me for an interview.

Sorry Eddie Baeur and Wilson's Gym you're about two months and $700 too late.

Found some great student teaching clothes the other day with mom, and had a great time.
The only disappointing part of the trip was dad asking me how much I was working, telling him about 27 hours a week, and him saying "is that all."
If you're a full time student and working this much per week while trying to be competitive in a sport you can understand how this comment makes no f#(*ing sense. But most likely you aren't a full time student trying to be a competitive athlete so you don't know either...

Field Visiting

Started my field visits for school this morning. Visiting Hickman High School, the largest high school in the state, 4 days a week.

Today I was in a Web Development class and then a Into to Digital Media class. If everything works out (if the teacher likes me)this could be who I student teach with next semester, which I'm sure would make that experience a lot easier.

Tomorrow I'll be with some dude in a Marketing class for one class period.


My weekends were taken away from me, and now my mornings are gone....what's this world coming to?

videos

Check them out...GOSH!

Neyo: So Sick
Neyo: Stay
Simple Plan: untitled

little of this...little of that

It has just come to my attention that Staples employees get a weekly paycheck. This would have been nice to know on Friday so that I could have picked up my check and been able to pay my cell phone bill on Saturday before it was disconnected. (On a side note, it would be nice if my direct deposit would work so that I would have to worry about taking a check to the bank)

There's not much better than walking around campus at night listening to Miri Ben Ari. If you haven't heard of her check it, she's known as THE hip-hop violinist.
A few of my favorites:

• Hold Your Head Up High ft. Lil' MO


• Sunshine to the Rain ft. Scarface & Anthony Hamilton (there's also a sweet music video for this one!)


• Miss Melody ft. Akon


• Fly Away ft. Fabolous, Kanye West & Musiq


• She was just a friend ft. Anthony Hamilton

Went to Deja-Vu last night with some guys from Staples...good times!

The only black guy that works at Staples (in columbia at least) was just fired for coming in late or just not showing up too many times. Its too bad, as he was a lot of fun and someday might be a decent artist. He's got some kind of rap group and one of the 4 songs on the cd has potential. (Note: I'm extremely with my rap music, so if I see potential in it, it could go places with a little work)

Rode 25 miles today. Froze Toes, Columbia annual "training race" that is considered the season opener, is just a few weeks away. If I'm able to race, and don't start putting in more hours on the bike I will be dropped midway through the race like last year.

Financial situation still sucks. Financial aid office told me they had a solution for me and then a week later I get an e-mail from them that says I don't have the money. No explanation (until I asked for one), just "we cannot offer you this loan".
This makes me very unhappy...

My "Issues in Education Policy" class will be a challenge. Everyone in there is about 10-15 years older than me, and sound like they've taken a number of classes together, seeing as how they kept bringing up other professor's names and books they've had to read. The professor is nice though. Welcome to grad school. (No I'm not technically in grad school, but these people are)

That's it for now. Time to write another "How I got where I am today" paper for an education class. I hate papers like this. I hate having to write about myself in this way.
The kind of tone I like to write with probably isn't appropriate for a paper like this. This teacher might accept it....maybe I'll find out...

don't feel so hot today.

So what am I going to do about it?

Put myself through a few hours of pain with a few guys on the cycling team.

RIP grandpa

No more grandpa's for me.

Got a longer post about it but I just got done working all day and now I've gotta go to the Reflector to do some stuff I told Judy I'd do, and she says I can't do it tomorrow since it's a holiday. $#%#(&

So that makes it about a 12 hour work day.


Dear weekends,
We were once good friends. I'll miss you.
Love,
Andy

P.S. My f'n feet hurt

My financial situation is a little better now.

But now my weekends are non-existent for a while. Work in an hour, work most of the day tomorrow, I think I'll even be working most of monday.

What's this mean? I may not have time to ride my bike. My last collegiate race could have been Nationals last October...

sucks even more to read another mu cyclists blog and see that he and his roommate are in New Mexico for a week or so putting in base mileage for this season.

#%()*@&

WARNING: if you don't like cusswords stop now.

I SAID STOP!





My financial situation is fucked!
23j4p5tujg0v8hnasdt386u84#%()&*@#)(@&()%RY

tired

is the word of the day.

Staples should be a good introduction into the world of retail, but it's not going to be all that rosy.

And a late happy new year to you. If you've got some kind of resolution good luck with that.

if

you see one movie this year (since 2005 is almost over, we'll say this post is for 2006) make it Crash.

It might be the most powerful movie I have ever seen...now if only I can figure out what it means to me...

A little freezin' in December

Rode about 40 miles with another guy this afternoon.
Weather wasn't too bad...mid-30s with a nasty, but not as nasty as the other day, cold wind. Did a couple loops of the Apple Cup course.

He put me in the pain box a couple days ago, today wasn't as bad. Almost visited the pain box once, but could have handled a little more. The scales just said I weight 206, I expected a little closer to 200 because of how good I felt on the bike. Much better than my first couple rides since taking some time off.

That's it for now....gots to find a job...or start pawning stuff off like Nell did.
F'n hire me people...I've got numbchuck skills and "i'm good with computers"(that ones for you scott, if you remember when we heard that said over and over again years ago)

music

some music is hard to stop listening to

check it.... Ne-Yo "So sick"

Yeah...books

As long as Ronnell answers the doorbell I'll have three new books arriving at the house today.
Postsecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives
The Rose That Grew From the Concrete - 2Pac
Found : The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World

Should be quite the exciting evening. Actually if Ronnell doesn't feel like being a lazy bum all evening then we'll go play ball after I get off work at 9...then took at the books for a few minutes before putting them in my "to read" pile.

My teeth are killing me right now. Actually it's just one wisdom tooth that's doing it. If this continues I'm going to have to find some industrial strength pain killers.

Speaking of books...I'll have another post soon related to books...

So...

its been a while since I've done any blogging. My bad.

Last weeks was very hectic, as I had one huge project for a class due (about 75% of the grade in the class) and one unit plan and a paper revision due in another.
Stayed up all night one day last week, and got lots done...just went through the next day in a daze. Which was ok, 'cause that's the last day of class for me.

Finals week is this week, but I've got none..so it's just work and finding a job. Got an application for the hospital Ronnell works at with good possibilities of work.

Went on my second bike ride since MTB Nationals and Ben put me in the pain box. Not a fun place to visit. (Note to self: avoid pain box)

Obviously lots has happened since the last time I posted...as I remember I might just post it up.

Oh, sold my mountainbike...so i've got a little more money to help pay off credit cards, just no more mountainbike.
Fire up your little violins and play a little tune for me (if you don't know me you have no idea what this means...so sorry)


I'm out like a fat kid in dodgeball

F'n CompUSA

Way too many f'n people at CompUSA at midnight. Scott and I drove by there cause he was thinking about getting some stuff but the line was from the door, along the front, along the side, and clear to the back.

In other news, I read some article in a magazine the other day that said saying "f'n" or other derivatives isn't cool. I disagree, and therefore shall continue to use it.


Happy late Thanksgiving to you. Mine was good. Thanksgiving lunch at Uncle Jim's was great. Couldn't get anyone to go with me to the plaza lighting (thanks a lot for beeing oversees booger :) so I simmered at scotts. Just now realized why I've been snacking so much the past 4 hours....no dinner. So I shall drink some more caffeine, eat a not so much frozen anymore pizza, and watch a movie with scott downstairs.

snow

I want snow.

lots of it.

If it's going to be chilly, there should be snow. Pennsylvania spoiled me.

A little better

Looks like I'm probably going to be able to student teach next August. The Associate Dean in the College of Ed and an advisor allowing me to take one class while I'm student teaching.

While it is great that I'll be done earlier, next fall will probably be my roughest semester yet. I also hate thinking about not being able to race mountainbikes with the team, but I doubt I'll have time to train like I'd need to. And no time for working either. So no money, so by the end of that semester will I even have any bikes?? hmmm...

Overwhelmed

Feeling a bit overwhelmed right about now.

$ - don't have any. Credit card companies call at least once a day (4 companies each day, around 5 or 6 calls per day).
Mostly worried about Thanksgiving and Christmas break. The only chance I have of financially surviving the breaks is finding a job. But how do I find one that will allow me to work just a few weeks?

School - if I could get one class created for me next semester I could student teach next Fall and be done in December. If my advisor would have made it clear to me that I needed to take it this semester this wouldn't be a problem, but she made it sound like it would be good to take it, not that it would save thousands of dollars.

So now do i become a part time student next semester (only have one education class schduled unless I can get the other one added, in which case I would have a full load) and figure out the financial consequeces of it, or add classes I don't really need and stay a full time student?

The College of Education can suck it.

Long ago

Haven't posted in a while. If you can read dates you already know this (if you can't read dates so well then listen up. Just above the title is the date this post was made. If you look back you can see on what date the last post was made. A little subtraction and you've got how long ago my last post was. TA-DA...you be a genius now)

Going out of town can really zap your energy. When I came back from Pennsylvania I was tired from the trip and what I had to do to get back on track, but also from being sick.
So basically that week was just spent trying to feel better and sleeping as much as possible.
So last week was spent trying to catch up some more, and feeling better.

Now I need to get started on a project for a class that I should've started on a few weeks ago. Not due for a few more weeks, but it should take a while to piece all of it together. At the same time I've got plenty of non-school related stuff I should be doing. Making sure the Cannondale (my mountainbike) is in good working order so I can sell it. Finding someone to buy an almost fully built computer (or figuring out if the motherboard is what's making it not work, getting a new one, and selling a working computer) and so on.
I need money, I've got stuff I can get rid of to get money, just haven't made the time...

Da Vinci Code

I'm trying to finish up The Da Vinci Code.

Got it here at work with me. I've decided to keep it in my bag until it's finished. Otherwise, I'll never finish it. I've only been reading it for 5-6 months.

I really like some of the ideas in the book. It's supposedly based on facts also. I almost wish I hadn't found a little film about called something like "The Real Da Vinci Code" which shows the foundations for a couple of the main ideas of the book (such as there being a bloodline from Jesus) were based upon lies.

Back to the whole book reading taking forever thing. It kinda ticks me off. I start a book. Then I start another one, and then another one. (And I've got about 8 more at home that I plan on reading) That's why I've been reading this book for so long.

Should you care? Not really...but you already read it so HA!

Useless

Feeling pretty useless this week.

Drag myself around the reflector for as many hours as I'm schedule to, then come home and basically get in bed. This wouldn't be a terrible thing if I got back out of bed and got some work done, but I don't.

Damn you sickness, damm you

suck

work really really sucks.
If only I could afford to take a day off and be miserable at home instead of extra miserable at work.

Collegiate MTB Nationals 2005

**Wrote this while I was in Pennsylvania because I knew if I didn't I wouldn't write anything for a while. It will be revised and prettied up later with some pictures added**
I feel pretty crappy now. Got a nice cold and feel like I've got a bunch of stuff I should be doing.
Gonna try to take 2 or 3 weeks off the bike to recharge, and then I'll be back to it again.


Thursday:
Got into 7 Springs at around 9am. Parked at the main resort and tried to get ourselves situated a bit. Went ahead and ate breakfast in a little diner in the main building. Steve got a haircut, and we peer-pressured him into dying his hair, we went to pick up our registration packets, and headed over to meet Michigan Tech at our condo (they had room to spare and didn’t mind the help in paying for it).

We got situated a bit, changed and Chad, Steve, Jon, and myself rode over to our courses to practice. Those guys practiced the mountain-cross track
and I rode further up the mountain to the short track/start of the cross-country course. Did a couple laps of the STXC course and then rode one lap of the cross-country course. Nice a painful….the course was made up of snow and mud. My toes were numb a good ¾ of the ride. It sucked…enough said.

Met up with Chad at the bottom of the hill, and we rode back to our condo. Nobody was there, door was locked, we were real happy. Eventually Brady and a couple dudes from Michigan Tech showed up and let us in. Brady made dinner, some people drank and played some games, and some just went to bed. After not sleeping but a couple hours during the drive, and driving from around midnight until around 4, I crashed around 9.


Friday:
Got up around 8. Brady made French toast like a nice housewife, then decided to run up to the Short Track Course (a good couple miles) in shorts, shoes, and a hat. It was cold outside.
The rest of us got geared up and I dropped Chad, Jon, and Steve off at the mountain-cross course and pick Brady up, and we headed up to the short track course.

I rode a whole two laps, and then about 8 of us got pulled. Some Colorado guys (CU, Fort Lewis, etc) set a crazy fast pace on the mostly uphill course and a majority of the 60 something riders were pulled fairly early into the 30 minute race.

My toes were frozen after those two laps, my face covered in mud, so Brady and I headed down the mountain and up and down back to our condo to change (brady had shorts, a shirt, hat, and shoes at this point…I was chilly in shoes, socks, a long underwear layers on bottom, with shorts and leg warmers over it, 2 shirts and a thermal jacket on top)

We changed and headed back to watch the guys qualify for mountain-cross (4 people riding down a course at a time). Only 32 guys (out of around 60) were able to qualify for the finals, and chad, who didn’t fall a single time practicing, fell twice in his qualifying run and finished 2 places out of the top 32. He was disappointed to say the least, considering a top 10 finish was basically expected. The other guys fell a bit, had some bike problems, and finished a little bit behind Chad.

Steve, Chad, and Jon

We found out they didn’t make the cut, went back to the condo so they could change, and went back to the course to watch the mountain-cross carnage.

That finished up at 3-something and we headed back to the condo, then to the bike shop down the road, the grocery store, and back to the condo for the evening. Steve and I cooked up a batch of pasta with meat sauce, green beans mixed with peas, and some Italian bread for dinner, and we ate up. Little bit of drinking, little bit of poker, and plenty of sleep.

Saturday:

Got up at the crack of 9am. Race started at 11:30. Overall it was fun. Could only use my largest chainring, and there was a couple huge climbs at the end (went from the bottom of a mountain to the top, with just a few twists) so I was doing the hike-a-bike for a good while. On my third lap I flatted about half way through and rode and hiked the bike in.

Walked the downhill course with brady…parts of it were crazy. Just before Brady and I got to the course Steve came walking towards us with his bike in three parts.
Broke the frame in two places. Then Chad and Jon did a run to see themselves for the race tomorrow.



Had an awards ceremony/all-you-can-eat buffet at 6:30, came back to the condo for a little while, then to the naked crit at 10pm.



Back side of mountain on Sunday

Cycling team in local paper

http://digmo.com/sports/story.php?ID=16727

Mullet time

No more shaved head. Thought about doing it one more time for this weekend, but I'll already be cold enough.

So the question is? Should I participate in the mullet movement?

Yes, sounds enticing doesn't it?
The best part....i could do it on my own!

Rec Center

I stepped foot in the rec center for the second time all semester tonight (and the first time was just cleaning out my locker the first day of the semester). After work I decided I needed to get some exercise, so I came home, changed, grabbed Ronnell and we headed to the rec.
For not having shot a ball since sometime around June/July I played pretty well. Ronnell could have used some work :)
I also got a nice cut on the top of my head from some dude that thought his elbow belonged there. Kinda like what happened to my eye brow in high school, only in a different spot by a dude 3/4 the size.

My body will dislike me in the morning. A bunch of different muscles are used to play ball that are used while cycling. Cardio system held up very well....much more than Ronnell could say

Goodnight

Fast fact...maybe

During our ride back onto campus last Friday Brady said William Jewell, the namesake of William Jewell College in Libery, is buried in the small graveyard right beside Providence road. There are some famous names in there, so I'll have to investigate sometime where he really is in there or not.

Don't ask me why i remembered that right now....

Postsecret and not enough money

Click on the title to check out, and preorder the new postsecret book.

I'm definately not going to have enough money to pay rent this month. Which means I won't next month either, and the next. What to do? Hopefully I can sell my mountainbike quickly after Nationals, and get as much as I hope to for it...that'll take care of the problem for a while. Looks like working more next semester is the only other answer I'll have.

real good

Had a real good conversation with dad a minute ago.
Why do I feel the need to post it up here? Because I don't feel like we've done much talking before. I'm not blaming this on him, nor am I putting all the blame on myself. (The answer to that is one of those questions like I mention below) So when you get around to reading this...thanks dad, it was great talking with you.

It also raises a bunch of questions in my mind. Questions I'd like an answer to, but some of them are kind tricky and the responses may be the kind that a quick answer won't really get it done. Maybe it's more of a question to get the other person to think about it themselves.

What to do...

Just saw this...had to post it

Mountainbiking...about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on

Created a discussion board for the cycling team. I'm really proud of it, even though it pretty much installed itself. I just had to make changes (stayed up 'till 8am yesterday morning doing it) and get it set up.
You can check it out, but can't see a lot unless you register
(off-limits are: General Discussion, Phone List...hmm..guess that's it. So most is on-limits. Just can't post unless you register.)

http://students.missouri.edu/~murace/forum/

No creative title for this one

This week went by quick. Class, work and a little bit of riding kept me busy.

Went on a nice 3 hour ride yesterday with a guy from Minnesota that might come to school here next year. Apparantly it's flat in the Minnesota, so the hills around Columbia put a beating down on him.

Went and saw Waiting last night. Ryan Reynolds is in it, it's about a restaurant. It was hilarious! Quotes will be coming out of my mouth from this movie for a while.

National Championships are coming up. I'm starting to get really excited....how many people can say there were in the National Championships of anything? That's right, not that many.

MTB National Championships

We'll be leaving in just over a week. Seems like thats way too quick.
There are 4 of us racing. Looks like I'm the only one suffering through the endurance races. The rest of the guys have a good shot at placing well in the gravity events. I honestly believe Chad has what it takes to be on the podium Saturday or Sunday in both gravity events.


I don't really feel like being on the bike right now either. Lately they've both seemed too small. (This doesn't mean I won't be on them...just that I won't enjoy being on them as I usually do)
I'm pretty sure I'm going to sell my mountainbike in the next month and try to find an equal that is a little bit bigger.

Will be leaving town Wednesday the 26th and getting back Sunday the 30th I believe. Then the very next week I'll be out of town part of Thursday and Friday for the MSTA State Convention in St. Louis.
Good stuff

Casino

5 of us from the cycling team went to the casino (in Booneville) last night. Left here about 11pm and got back into town at 3am.
It was sweet. The nickel slots were good to me, then the quarter slots slapped me in the face.
And the Long Island's were tasty

Michigan Tech weekend (last weekend)

So the long awaited post is here. Brace yourself...

We were extremely lucky to have Kyle's dad and Steve's parents willing to drive their RV's to the North for us. They got into Columbia (both drove from home, Liberty, MO)at about 9pm Thursday. We were also very lucky that the insurance policy Kyle's dad has with his RV covers any trailer that is attached, therefore we were able to use Walt's old Long John Silvers Cycling team bike trailer.
We got everything loaded up and headed out of Columbia sometime around 9:30pm. I believe we stopped somewhere in Illinois around midnight or 1am for the night. In between 9:30 and 1am the 21 year old RV (youngins were in the larger RV) commenced to drink (not just alcohol, but...yeah...mostly alcohol), play cards, watch a DVD, and study a bit.
We got up around 7am, having a breakfast (muffins, pastries, etc provided by Steve's parents) in the RV's. Got on the road again shortly after.
Drove a long long time, playing more card games, sleeping, watching movies, playing XBOX, studying, and so on until we got to our RV campground in Michigan around 8 or 9pm. Jim used his goverment cheese (read: Food stamps) to buy lots of snacks for the trip. So lunch during the trip was pb&j, ham sandwhiches, and other various foods.
After we got the RV's parked in their sports a few of us took the Suburban to WalMart and got a couple things. Then we attempted to find the race sites for the next day. This took a while, and when we finally got back to the camp site at 11-something pm Steve's mom had a huge thing of pasta ready for us. (In the end, turns out both race sites were not more than 5 minutes away from our campsite)
We ate, watched some tv in the big rv and people started heading to bed shortly after midnight.

( NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO TAKE A BREAK. )

Got up at 6am Saturday. Loaded up the bikes, Kyle's RV, the suburban, and headed to the ski slopes. Dual slalom qualifying started at something like 9, so we had plenty of time to take practice runs. We all qualified and soon after the ski lift started operating and we took it up to practice the downhill course.
(What is dual slalom: two people race down a course with jumps, berms, and the first one to the finish line wins.
What is qualifying: everyone goes down one time by theirself to get a place in the bracket. Later in the day the bracket is worked out and the races happen)
Ski lift was sweet. Never been on one that big before, it was kind of a bummer to look down part way up the hill and see a huge wreath and cross on a tree. I was also nursing a large gash in my right shin and a swollen left shin courtesy of the dual slalom course. (I am bad at landing jumps. Even small ones. If you look in Parker's pictures the first set in the "crashes" page is mine. My pedals madly abused both my shins.) I immediately saw the gash in my right shin, and had the medics put a wrap on it. About 15 minutes later I was waiting for them to let us jump on the ski lift when I noticed my left shin was a lot wider than my right shin, and my right shin had a wrap on it. I pulled up my leg warmer and realized that my shin had grown huge sometime in the past few minutes. Went and found another medic and we found some ice and wrapped it on there.

My ice and I then went up the ski lift and did one run of the downhill course. It was sweet, would have been even sweeter if I was using a downhill bike on it.
Put my bike back in the trailer and hopped back in the RV to lay down and ice my shin. The other guys finished up in the next hour or so and we headed across town to the XC (cross-country) race site.
Our C riders took off, followed 10 minutes later by our B riders. I kept the ice on my shin for a while until the other A riders started getting ready. We went out and rode a little bit of the course, and got ready to race.
The race was long and bumpy. I didn't cramp up like I had been lately, which was good. But I also didn't place very well. Chad did very well, and John and I finished together a bit later (which was very good for him, his first A race of the year. Had done B races all year). Lou flatted on the last lap and came in not long after John and I. Steve came in not long after Lou.

We headed back to the campsite and we grabbed our bags and the suburban headed over to Michigan Tech's rec center for a shower. They had old-school-everyone-showers-together showers, so we all got clean together. (campground turned out not to have working showers, so Foosh talked to the Michigan Tech peeps and got us the use of their showers. Actually we were in their XC skiing locker room. There was a Michigan Tech ice hockey game going on in the same building.

After the showers we headed back to the RV's and Steve's dad was working on grilling burgers for us. Had burgers, pasta from the night before, and beans, and watched My Name is Earl.
Headed to bed around midnight again I think.

Got up around 6am, and got the trailers ready. We were taking both to the ski resort so we could leave straight from their after the races were over.

Got the bikes out, and we headed up the ski lift for the start of the downhill race. I was the third racer to go, the first Mizzou. It was a huge rush, but you only get one run at it, which kind of sucks. My legs were shaking after my run for about 10 minutes because I still had the adrenaline in me.
All the downhill runs finished and they opened up the Dual Slalom course for a little bit of practice before the race.
Eventually the A's races started. Then the B's went, which consisted of 5 Mizzou riders, and 1 Michigan Tech rider. I was the one that got to race the Michigan Tech rider and I got spanked. I blame it on no jumping ability and a lack of a jumping bike :)

Lou won the B's race, Chad won the A's in high-flying fashion (he also won the Downhill even earlier in the day).

Shortly after the DS races the Short track started. C's went, then B's, then A's. Course sucked. Lots of grass climbing, then not much downhill (yeah, what goes up must come down. But if some of it is going sideways then it doesn't seem like much). A's race was brutal. Chad flatted in the first few laps (he probably reached back and cut his own wheel to relieve the pain), John and I pulled ourselves a few laps later. Steve did the same a few laps after us, and then Lou eventually did.

We got our stuff loaded up, and waited for the conference director to tally the results and hand out trophys. Due to our great showing at this race we moved into the 1st place spot among Division I teams in our conference. So we got a nice trophy and a team invitation to Nationals. Chad and John also got awards for finishing 1st and 3rd in the season in gravity events. (DS and Downhill=gravity)(XC and STXC=endurance)

We got back on the rode from the ski resort at 4pm. Many miles, lots of snacks, a hamburger and chicken sandwhich from a convenience store, and lots of water later we got back into Columbia shortly after 7am. Actually Steve's RV was about an hour and a half later than ours because they like to travel a little slower in their beast of an RV.

That's it.

Pictures are here. Not organized at all. I may organize them and re-upload later sometime. Enjoy!

Got some money? Give it to me. Please....?

The Mizzou Cycling team took 1st place among Division 1 schools in the Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference. That means we're going to Nationals in Pennsylvania.

But it's gonna cost a buttload per person. We're talking upwards of $250 each.

So if you feel like giving me any money to race against the best in the country let me know and I'll be glad to accept your charity. :)


A bigger post will come this weekend about how last weekend went and so on....

Get lost alot? Have iPod photo/nano?

http://ipodiway.com/

Too much due this week. I'll post a blurb tonight about how the weekend went and why there's an icepack on my left leg (and a large bandage on my right leg that you can't see. Hint: see Parker's "crash" section) on one of Parker's ski lift pictures

Michigan

Just got back home from Michigan.
Awesome trip. Will write much more later


Parker's Pictures

Apple Butter Day pics

Cycling road pics from last semester

Road pictures taken last semester for Alumni magazine article

12 Hour Race pics

Good weekend

This past weekend was applebutter day at Grandma's. It was great, and I'll have a bunch of pictures to put up in the next couple days, as soon as I find time.

Classes are busy. One group presentation coming up this week, another one next week. Also have a research paper due next week. I want to write it over the school funding formula but I don't know that I'll have the time to research it enough to write a decent paper...so that's got to be figured out in the next 7 hours here at work.

Went on a 2 1/2 hour ride yesterday. Was a little sore 'cause I haven't ridden in a few days. We'll see how I feel after the ride tomorrow.
The cycling team has a big 13 hour drive this weekend to the U.P. of Michigan. It's gonna be a really long weekend if my legs don't get back into the groove of cycling.
Then at the end of this month is Nationals in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. We aren't guaranteed to go yet, but its what we've been working for, and all expect to happen.