Month: August 2005

Early this morning, in the pouring rain, I left my cozy domicile and ventured north. Through unspeakable peril, I fought my way past the state’s capitol and toward a land of horrific danger and untold adventure. Despite the risk, I journeyed forth. The gold at the end of this particular rainbow was simply too shiny to pass up… and no axe-wielding leprechaun was going to stand betwixt me and my glorious treasure. (What? Leprechauns are known to wield axes… from time to time… right?)

My destination was scenic Bloomfield Connecticut, where I would find this state’s most prized annual event: The Northeast Bicycle Swap Meet. This was not just any old bicycle swap though. No, it was a vintage Muscle Bike swap.

The bike swap was held at the New England Muscle Bicycle Museum. Yeah… I had no idea that this place existed either. But now that I do, my life is bound to change. Ok… not really, but it is a very cool place (try not to let their shoddy website scare you away).

I went with eight dollars… which was a big mistake because there was at least twelve dollars worth of stuff that I would have liked to have purchased.

Actually, I found an old Schwinn track frame in excellent condition for $75 and a stylish leather seat for $15. The $8 that I had with me wouldn’t cover the cost… even after offering up my yodeling and tap dancing skills as trade… maybe especially after that. So off I went, 15 miles down the road to find the nearest ATM. When I returned to the bike swap, both items where gone. Sniff sniff, sob sob…

It’s for the best really. Money is a bit tight right now and who knows how the Streetfighter would react if I were to bring home another bike. Anyway, the swap was not entirely a wash. When I realized the likelihood of finding any other treasures at this event were slim, I plunged my fist into the nearest one dollar parts bin and purchased the first thing that I pulled out: a BMX seat and seat post… which was obviously a great investment seeing as I haven’t ridden BMX since high school. It was a good time though… and I did make a new friend.

Check out my flickr photoset of the bike swap here!

I’m officially a grad student. School started last Wednesday… well, I had graduate orientation and the first meeting of one class, anyway. I’m already swamped, but I don’t mind. This is going to be an amazing experience.

I’ve spent the last few days sort of getting aquatinted with my new campus. This place is incredible. The lobby of the library looks like a hotel. The architecture is very impressive too (inside and out). And the campus is so green and lush! Ponds, mountains across the street, a pine forest… sure beats the trash heap that was UMass, the concrete wasteland that was HCC, and the flat brick rectanguloids that made up WSC.

In addition to being visually impressive, my new campus is technologically mind-blowing. The campus is wired from head to toe, and wireless almost everywhere… the wifi even extends into the quad.

And now as I explore the campus and talk with my fellow classmates, I find myself experiencing something that I’ve only ever felt on a marginal level: school pride.

Yep. I like it here. I think that I’ll go buy something with my school’s logo emblazoned on it. Go Bobcats!

Today is my last day here in Georgia, visiting with my little sister, her fiance, and their adorable menace of a dog. Soon, this little family of hers is off to Seattle (a city I’ve never been to and am eagerly looking forward to exploring). Before they leave for their new Pacific Northwest residence, and before I start school, I thought that I’d visit them one last time in the very surreal South.

I’ve had a fantastic time here with my sister. She’s the greatest! But, in order to really know my sister, you need to meet her. So blog-o-sphere, I’d like you to meet my little sister.

Didn’t I read somewhere that dog saliva is like the super-healing miracle salve? Well, I goddamn hope so… ’cause I’m covered in open wounds and dog saliva. Interestingly enough, they’re both from the same source.

Surprisingly, I have very little to say about the iBook stampede… except maybe, “Ha ha.“

Moments ago, as I returned from the local caffeine pusher… coffee in hand, heart beginning to race from the anticipation of the morning’s first hot caffeine injection… and sat down to read my news, check the ol’ email, and gather my thoughts for the day… all while cradling that blissful, steaming cup of enlightenment… I found a curious email in my inbox from my pal Mike (who resides in the deepest and darkest depths of the most lukewarm and tepid of infernos). His email pointed to a study done by NASA, where spiders were dosed with various chemicals and let loose to [attempt to] build their webs.

The chemicals included in the experiment were marijuana, LSD, a few others that I can’t remember, and caffeine. What you’ll notice when observing the resulting webs, is that each drugged spider produced a failed web structure characteristic of their drug’s specific effects. “The spider on marijuana drifted off before finishing the job. The spider on benzedrine, an upper, worked energetically but without much planning. The spider dosed with chloral hydrate, a sedative, soon fell asleep. But the spider dosed with caffeine was by far the most disoriented and proved incapable of creating even a single organized cell.”

I find it hard to believe that a spider’s reaction to a chemical substance is equivalent to that of a human (especially considering that coffee is the only thing keeping me from being “disoriented” and “incapable of creating even a single organized cell…” well, maybe the cell part doesn’t really apply to my particular situation, but you get the point). Now, I’m not a NASA Scientist, so I can’t say for certain. But if there’s one thing I did learn in graphic design college, it was that spiders are not people (we had a very weird curriculum).

The point of this post however, is not to prove how much smarter I am than NASA. No, I’m saving that one for a rainy day. The point of this post is to bring light to the fact that NASA has made a huge oversight within their research. NASA has completely omitted any related studies on, what I’d like to call, the Peter Parker Scenerio.

Peter Parker, a teenage science nerd whose skills with the ladies rival that of my own, was bitten by a radioactive spider which mutated the very fibers that make him human and turned him into a super-human with spider-like abilities… a “Spiderman,” if you will. The question that I’d like to pose at this juncture is: If the result of being bitten by a radioactive spider is super-human strength and spider-like abilities, what would be the mutation resulting from a hyper-caffeinated spider bite? Sticking to the walls and talking really fast? Well, there’s only one way to find out. To NASA, ho!

Driving alone, at night, on the highway, in the pouring rain, listening to something dark.

It’s all over the internet. Mac OS X, the version that ships with the Developer’s Kit for making the transition from PowerPC to x86, has been hacked and cracked and is now running on a PeeCee. There’s a few videos floating around showing the boot process. There’s even a couple of how-to guides.

I’m not going to say, “I told you so.” Well, I guess that I just did.

I haven’t heard the as of yet unreleased Opeth album “Ghost Reveries.” However, if I had heard it, I might tell you how incredibly spectacular it is. I might tell you how fantastic the vocals are, and how the clean vocals are more refined and precise yet portray raw emotion like no other Opeth CD. I might also tell you that you can hear a lot of classic rock influence in this album from the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Doors, etc. I might even tell you that track two, “The Baying of the Hounds,” is ten minutes and forty-one seconds of pure bliss. I might tell you these things… but I won’t because the album will not be released until August 30th, 2005. Until then, you’ll just have to take my word for it… er, not that I would know… because I definitely haven’t heard the album yet. Ummm… I gotta go.

Watching a motorcyclist interact with other motorcyclists is an odd phenomenon. Without even knowing one another, they share an instant kinship with their fellow bikers… regardless of whether they are riding a Fatboy, a crotch rocket, or a moped… well, maybe not a moped. When they pass each other on street they give the I’m too cool for a car wave. It’s like they know something that we don’t. It’s as if they belong to an exclusive club, where the entrance fee is simply motorcycle ownership.

I’ve never belonged to the exclusive motorcycle club. Come to think of it, I’ve never belonged to any club… let alone an exclusive one. Until now, that is.

Recently, I’ve found myself exchanging nods of recognition with other owners of the now legendary sandals. Yep… owners of the Keen Newport H2 tend to react to each other in the same way that motorcyclists do. We Nod. We Wave. We smile. We comment: “How you like those Keens?” or “Looking good in those Keens!” We know something that the general populous of inferior sandal wearing chumps just wouldn’t understand. It’s exclusive, a little bit elitist, totally nerdy, yet somehow, enormously satisfying.