Here are the routes that Van and I followed on our amazing 4 day cycling adventure.
More to come later, I'm too tired to blog at the moment.

Some stats:

Total distance: around 200 miles
Bike weight: 30.5 lbs
Gear weight: 53.5 lbs
My weight: 163 lbs
Patches applied: 3
Tubes changed: 2
Mechanical failures: front brake cable broken, small front chainring broken
Fish caught by Scott: 0
Fish caught by Van: 2 Oops, 3
Most beautiful vista: Ogden Valley (Huntsville and surrounding area)
Least beautiful vista: Ogden

A few observations:

Bell products, though technically inferior to most other brands, saved my life.

Elk Run is a stupid name for commercial/retail space in Eden, but I'm glad we were able to camp out behind it without incident.

People in Park City are generally not friendly.

People in Morgan and Huntsville are very friendly.

Ace Hardware rocks.

Box Elder bugs are everywhere and I hate them.

Listening to Muse's Hullabaloo disc 2 and downing 20 oz of Pepsi creates some kind of magical cycling rocket fuel.

Day 1

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Day 2

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Day 3

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Day 4

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Barack Obama Wins First Ever Nobel Prize for Not Being George W Bush

In a surprise move this week, the Nobel Foundation announced addition to its usual lineup of Nobel prizes, the Nobel Prize for Not Being George W Bush to United States President Barack Obama.

"For his extrordinary efforts at being Not George W Bush, the Nobel Committee awards President Barack Obama this prestigious award. Though he has not been in office a year, President Obama has proven without a doubt that he is most definitely Not George W Bush and has every intention of continuing on his present course," said Nobel Committee Chairman Jorg Blanlund on Friday.

The Nobel Commission elaborated on their purpose in creating such an award. "We feel it important to recognize world leaders who live up to the ideals of being Not George W Bush. We felt that, as good as the Nobel Peace Prize is, it still fails to recognize essential attributes and contributions to human society and associated with being Not George W Bush such as multilateralism, diplomacy, being able to properly pronounce the word "nuclear" when discussing disarmament, not becoming creepily informal and touchy with foreign heads of state, and not making his or her citizens embarassed to claim him or her. Basically, it goes to a world leader who doesn't make him or herself look like an ass every five minutes whilst simultaneously restoring dignity to world politics."

Many critics have pointed out the fact that the name of the prize contains that of a US President, and that the Nobel Prizes are supposed to be international. "Of course we expected this criticism," said Jorg Blanlund, "This prize is eligible to men and women of all nations, and we feel the prize's name is actually quite appropriate because George W Bush was not only embarassing to the United States, but to humanity in general. We're already actively looking at candidates for next year's prize in such countries as Iran, North Korea, and of course, France. These are all countries who are in dire need of non-embarassing leadership and we fully expect someone less embarassing to spring forth any year now."

The creation of the Nobel Prize for Not Being George W Bush marks the first new Nobel Prize category since the short-lived and controversial Nobel Prize for being Unlike Richard M Nixon awarded to Jimmy Carter.

Super Addicting Music Fun

My friend Nik linked this on facebook. After discovering it I proceeded to spend the next hour and a half playing around with it. That guy's got a load of cool audio-related flash gizmos.

If you love that and want something more challenging/versatile, try out Audiotool by Hobnox.

I really have no idea how to make proper music and I love the idea that these tools let ordinary folks like myself jump in and do something creative without having to invest money in mixing boards, pedals, instruments, and all sorts of other flashy light thingies that make noise. Brilliant.

Post #1

Pat challenged me to post more on my blog, and to rant less. I acknowledge that I do rant quite a bit through my blog, and also haven't posted in a long time. Not much has irked me enough to generate a ranting post. However, I think that even were I to possess the fuel for such a rant, it would likely not be appreciated by those reading my blog.

Apparently, people want to know what's new in my life, what I've been doing with my free time, education, career and all that lovely junk. Moreover, in order to be linked on Pat and Anna's blog, I need to post a certain number of blogs. Can't remember how many that is. I'm sure I'll reach it though. Just like John Etchemendy and Rich Patterson before me, I shall attain this lofty recognition.

So here is my first non-ranting post. The topic for today is skydiving.

I have been skydiving since Amanda Hoover, for my birthday, kidnapped me from my home and, convincing me that we were going to Lagoon, drove me further north to Skydive Ogden. Not only was this the best birthday present I've received, it was also an awesome gift to not have to spend a day at Lagoon. I shall not rant on this topic. I will simply say that Lagoon really, really sucks.

Skydiving, as it turns out, is the polar opposite of Lagoon - it really, really rocks. So far I've jumped, as my dad likes to say, from 10 perfectly good planes. I plan to jump out of many more airplanes. Here are a few realizations I've made while skydiving:

1. Freefalling is much easier when you're relaxed. One of my instructors imparted the following sagacious wisdom as we were flying to our drop point: "If you are relaxed enough to fart the entire freefall, you're doing good. I make it a goal sometimes to see how long I can let it fly as I'm falling." I haven't been able to do this yet, though I have let a few go in the cabin as we were ascending.

2. Clouds look soft and inviting on the ground, but are actually quite gritty and painful on the face at freefall speed.

3. Ogden is actually quite scenic when you're not on the ground.


Well, that's about it right now. It's 2:18 AM and I've run out of words. Amazing how vocabulary shrinks this late at night.