i've noticed some disturbing trends since classes have started. i have classes in three departments right now: mechanical engineering, geology, and physics. the ME guys seem like frat boys and gear heads who are interested in getting a real job and making money. the geology guys are a lot of fun, they aren't really into math or science but just like drinking beer and being outside. the physics guys however are another story. i've never seen people get so excited about draining batteries or filtering out low frequency electrical signals. this is not it though. many of them seem to think that tucking your shirt into your pants is cool, and that nobody will notice if you wear one blue sock and one black sock and that the male ponytail is and always has been in style. this is nothing new - i have been aware of this for some time. so as a tribute to my collegues i took some data in my classes and plotted it up.


this graph is accurate because there are only like two girls who are physics majors, and they have ponytails anyway. also, notice the nearly exponential increase in ponytails from freshman year through junior years. by senior year there are very few holdouts. thus i have little hope for brain. it's just a matter of time before he succumbs to the pressure.

6 men of genius under fire

we've come upon crazy times indeed. i guess reports are coming out of washington that the war in iraq has actually increased terrorism. wow, i never saw that one coming. seriously, what a bunch of dumbasses in washington. invading a secular arab country to stop conservative religous fanatics who also hate the secular arab country and have no affiliation whatsoever? what? huh? the best part is the republicans scrambling around trying to act like it was a good idea to invade iraq and kill 100,000 innocent people. how can they even pretend to be christians? jeez. i'm not really religous or anything, but i doubt jesus would agree that this war was a good idea, or any war for that matter. whatever. at least in november we'll get democrats in office who'll screw up a little less.

did the headwaters 100 this weekend. i was going to do about 70 miles because it was raining but i ran into kari edvenson at the emmaville stop and ended up riding the remaining 35 miles or so with her. had a pretty good time too...

oh, kari and i saw the race go through emmaville so then we decided to try and chase them down and hang out in the pack, you know cause it wasn't uscf or anything. we were gaining for a while and then we see two (actually 3) people in front of us, and by shear luck we caught jim cullen on a tandem with his son and skibby just after they popped off the back on a hill. i tried to lay it on skibby, especially since two tourers caught him. but he had been racing for 75 miles or something so i suspose he is excused.

congrats to mikey for 6th in the points, that's pretty impressive. also to ben and brain and elena, i wish i was out there, oh well. next year maybe, we'll see.

ok

It's about 3:30 am now and i just smoked my thermo homework so now i just have to finish my mechanics homework before 9:00 am class. probably shouldn't have gone to the track tonight...

speaking of the track, it went well, i got second in the 3s omnium and second in the madison with skibby. i thought we rode pretty well all things considered, especially since we'd never ridden together before. the madison was pretty slow though, without brain or ben to preside over the suffering of the rest of the field, but whatever. oh, i finally got to race adam bergman. he's pretty fast i have to say. i wish i had jumped on his wheel during the win and out, but i missed the move and had to settle for second. nothing really funny happened during the racing. i guess i took it more seriously tonight. kind of a bummer in hindsight, though the combination of fireworks, matt anderson's band, and hollywood yelling and cheering made it a pretty sweet night overall.

homework updates to follow soon.

Huzzaaa!

friday night was odd. somehow i was the only very intoxicated person at a mikey gathering. how did this happen? who put me up to this and how did you do it? who got me to go mountain biking? who got me to skip my homework till Sunday afternoon? very odd weekend. anyhow, i want it to be known that i was a real team player this weekend. you know, getting drunk and going mountain biking. what is going on with me? whatever.

this morning kavi was over and he was telling me about last night. i guess he was at the Gay 90s and the Saloon, "getting out the vote... and having a hell of a time!." in his own words. the gay bars sound like an experience. drunk gay guys groping everyone, some sort of a shower thing for dancing, lots of free drinks from older gay guys. matt and he went to the 90s a couple weeks ago with a gay co-worker of Kavi's with Becky's campagne. i guess it was a wild night, and somehow by the end of the night all three of them ended up very intoxicated in a bed together at a hotel. there wasn't any gay action going on (kavi and matt are very straight), they just all ended up on the bed together. pretty funny actually. so kavi -go eat a dick, and i'll tell priti about it after.

I want to make a quick comment on last thursday's racing at the velodrome. i was under the impression that it was kind of lame all night, with the exception of the very exciting cat. 1/2 keirin. the madison was boring, the cat. 3s rode really unaggresively all night, the women's races were boring, and the 4/5s were just kind of dominated by mulroony and the other road guy on hollywood. i'm glad i didn't do the madison too, seriously, guys were riding terrible. nobody was riding relief correctly, and people were making all sorts of sketchy moves. this is the first time in probably a year and a half that i didn't race a madison in Blaine and watched instead, so maybe it's always like that, but i hope not. whatever.

ed

all the stars alligned last night at the track - into the shape of a delicious bacon and cheese flameburger. yeah, even without the regular crew a new batch of volunteers were shnookered into going there. ben, brain, chris ferris, bob and dave thimpson went, as well as myself. it was sweet. oh there were some races too, ben and brain mopped up in the state points race, taking 1st and second. my highlight was when i was at the line for the start of the chariot race finals. i was trying to psych out andy kruse so i told him i just glued my tire on that morning. but it backfired because brain, who was holding me, threatened to goose me and i started to laugh then the race started. i had by far the worst start of the bunch. it was funny.

i rode a 91.8 inch gear last night, a little higher than normal, but my spin is so bad after not riding for 2 months that i felt undergeared. so next week i think i'm going to go all out, maybe strap on a 96 inch gear for kicks. that should hurt pretty good. ha!