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| 3/31/04, 9:48 p.m.: Random Awesomeness |
For starters, Andy and I came across this
last night: the homepage for the International Federation of Competitve Eating. Some of
those records are absolutely ridiculous, like 20lbs of rice balls in 30min, 43 tacos in
11min, 6lbs of baked beans in LESS THAN 2 MINUTES, etc. Check it out, truly unbelievable ...
someday maybe you will see my name on that hallowed hall of fame list.
I finally got around to putting my old G4 mobo
up for auction on eBay last night, effectively ending my G4 project. It had been on hold
for the last 6 months anyway, but oh well. I need some money for a future G4 project, hehe.
Also this evening I changed 1/2 the water in my tank and added some distilled; hopefully that
will allow my plants to grow again. I also added a few more plants, so the tank is awesome
now. With a whole army of snails taking care of my algae problem, I have a regular
budding ecosystem! Now all I need is more fish.
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| 3/30/04, 12:39 a.m.: "Run, run, or you'll be well done!" |
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So when I found out today that there wasn't going to be soccer practice, I decided
to do one of those strange random things, like, for instance, going out to the
cross country course and running the old 5K route for the hell of it. First time
I'd done that in at least two years. And what I found
was that, even after all these years ... it still is an awfully tough course.
The hills seemed steeper even, though maybe that was me being out of shape.
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| 3/28/04, 9:51 p.m.: So much travel. |
Finally got back from Ann Arbor today, and I have to say that in spite of the long
drive and the monsoon I had to go through to get there, it was worth going,
even on my own dime. Michigan itself is really pretty
country, at least what I saw of it. Lots of trees, with the occassional lake
or river, and plenty of vineyards and orchards. Reminded me a bit of Door
County in Wisconsin. The University itself was pretty awesome, too - the north
campus, which has the engineering, art/design, and music departments
(presumably to even out the male:female ratio), was really
as beautiful as people had told me it was. I had a good chance to visit with
profs and grad students while I was there, and that went well. The department
is well-respected, and the projects looked really interesting--they even had one
involving fish =P I took a few pictures, like usual, but the camera batteries are
juiced and I will have to charge them before I can get the pics. Nothing too
exciting, anyway, much like this post. For those who care, I set a couple personal
driving records on the way to Ann Arbor, as well:
-- Most time spent in the car by myself: 9 hours.
-- Farthest I've ever driven solo: 1300 miles roundtrip, or about 4 tanks of gas.
...Small potatoes for some of you, I'm sure, but still significant milestones
for me =P
North campus pond.
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| 3/24/04, 7:38 p.m.: LE Returns ... ! |
Well, this
was certainly some awesome and unexpected news. Glad to see he found a way
to get back into coaching so soon -- hope everything goes well for him this
time around. Guess I will have to be a casual Eagles fan now =)
In other news I took two tests and handed in a 12-page essay test today, played
soccer outside for the first time since November (and a poor showing it was, for
sure), and need to get ready to travel to Ann Arbor tomorrow. I'm pooped, but very
much looking forward to poker this evening. Woot.
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| 3/22/04, 1:16 p.m.: mmm, basketball |
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Let's see ... I spent three of the last four days doing little more than watching
basketball, which was awesome. This year's tournament has been pretty fun to watch,
even with very little money on the line. My bracket's shot to hell like everyone else's anyways.
I also managed to find time to play some poker for the first time in like a month,
and got smoked as usual. Someday, when I go all in on a trio of 10's I won't lose
to 3 Aces. *grumble* I think I'm still in shock =P
Saturday also saw the introduction of the term "Dirty Straight", which I also
lost my money to (the first time), and was my first exposure to the Rule of Two, which
refers to the uncanny good luck experienced by the first person to buy back in with 2 bucks.
Crazy. Unfortunately, yesterday was a harsh awakening as I spent nearly 9 hours writing
my history essays, which are due Wednesday, when I also have two other tests. This will
not be a fun week.
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| 3/22/04, 11:10 a.m.: Badgerland |
Last week was spring break, and as far as low-key spring breaks go, it was pretty
awesome. I spent the first weekend in Madison visiting the campus there. I think of
all the places I've visited so far, Madison is by far the coolest. The campus itself
was not that impressive (with the exception of the lakefront, which is just awesome),
but I imagine it would be prettier in the spring and summer. The professors I
visited with were pretty cool and I got a good feel for the place, and it was also
good times hanging out with some of the other prospective grad students while I was
there, too. It will make my decision that much harder, now ;)
View of Lake Mendota from the
campus side.
Convention Center/Morona
Terrace.
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| 3/11/04, 1:10 p.m.: Happy Spring Break |
In the state of Iowa, anyway, spring break is upon us. Although many people
are going to exciting corners of the world, such as Italy and Colorado, I will
be making a campus visit to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Not like I
really had any spring break plans anyway, and I'm sort of looking forward to this
trip because I know Madison is a cool place, so no big deal. Plus, I can be around
for the opening round of the NCAA Tournament next weekend, which is the greatest
4 days of sports of the whole year. Period.
View of downtown Minneapolis from
the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory at UMN.
Also, I spent last weekend visiting the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities.
Although it was a very urban environment (and therefore quite a contrast for me), I
really liked the campus and the facilities, and the surrounding area looked pretty
interesting, as well. The professors and current grad students were pretty nice,
too, so it was definitely a good weekend. I remembered my camera this time, and
managed to take a few pictures, although nothing really that exciting.
Have an awesome break everyone, and come back in one piece!
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| 3/7/04, 4:04 p.m.: Rendezvous Part III |
I think I will just keep up this trend of being a week behind, and instead of tell
what happened this weekend, will give you the update on LAST weekend, when KC/Tulsa
alliance of Alex, Victoria, and Bryan came up for the weekend. Basically, we tried
to give them the "Ames" experience, since the last time they came up was for only
about a day last summer. So this tour naturally included eating at Ames' very own
Hickory Park for lunch, touring the Rieman butterfly garden (which is really cool
by the way), the Brunnier Art Gallery, and finally, coffee at Cafe Diem. Next time
we'll have to be sure and hit up the Cafe for breakfast, and hopefully Stomping
Grounds will be open by then, too, hehe. We also showed them a nice high-class breakfast
at the Cyclone Truck Stop Sunday morning, as well =P
Also included last weekend was Round One of
the Bryan vs Ben eating contest, which consisted of us each trying to consume as
much Great Plains pizza as humanly possible. Bryan was a worthy (f-ing!) adversary,
but I think I used my home court advantage to pack down 5 slices of GPS&D for the
victory. I look forward to our next contest, arteries permitting.
Finally, last Sunday I had my first band concert of the semester, and it was
(unfortunately) probably the most eventful of any I've had. While assembling
my BC, I managed to drop the mouthpiece on the floor and shatter the bottom part
of it clean off, making it unplayable. The music store was closed, so I had
to borrow one from another player in the other band (used, of course) -- quite
embarassing to say the least. I also have to pay for the replacement, which will
probably run me just over $100. NOT cool.
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