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...