Evan's Place

Book Review - It's All About the Bike

2011-08-24T19:56:00.003-06:00

I just finished reading this book while on vacation last week. Don't confuse it with the book "It's Not About the Bike" which was written by Lance Armstrong about his comeback after fighting cancer to win the Tour de France. This book is written by a man named Robert Penn, who apparently has ridden his bicycle almost all of the way around the world. (If I remember correctly, he made it to India but decided to stop for some reason) He often refers to his experiences on his ride throughout the pages.

It's All About the Bike follows Penn around the world as he seeks to build his dream bike. He buys a custom built frame in England, a headset in Portland, OR, a drive train in Italy, and custom wheels in California just to name a few. In doing so, he delves not only into what type of parts he wants and why, but the history of the bicycle itself. He has done a lot of research into how the bicycle has become the machine it is today, virtually unchanged in form for more than 100 years. These facts and his opinions are presented in a very entertaining manner, for the most part.

The book is very tailored to a reader who loves bicycles. I don't know who else would enjoy reading 36 pages about the history of the bicycle handlebar and steering developments. But if it's your thing, this book is well worth your while. Just as a note, Penn's completed custom dream bike ends up costing him only around 5500 dollars. This may seem like a lot at first thought, but take a trip to your local bike shop and I can almost guarantee that there are bikes in there that sell for around 8000 dollars. Anyway, I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the bike.

My First Century Ride: ULCER 2011

2011-08-11T22:11:00.015-06:00

- Disclaimer -
This post is long, and there's only one picture, and it's a picture of a computer. I will not be held responsible if you read the whole thing and then feel like you wasted your time. It's not my fault that you wasted your time reading this. Just saying...

For all of you who have been in contact with me over the past few months, you may have heard about the ULCER. ULCER stands for: Utah Lake Century Epic Ride. A "century" is what bike riders call a ride of 100 miles, as you may have guessed. My friend Garrett, my brother-in-law David, and I all signed up to do the ULCER, which was held on August 6. It cost about 60 bucks to register, which made it easier to make myself prepare for it (even though I really didn't do all that much) so that my money didn't go to waste. As you may know, it is now after August 6, which means that the ride is over. This post is a description of my experience on the ride so that you all can read about it.

Friday evening, my friends and I drove up to Thanksgiving Point in Lehi in order to pick up our ride materials consisting of a rider registration number tag to attach to our bikes, our "free" shirt, some advertisements, and a listing of the rules for the ride. I also had to sign a paper acknowledging that I knew that I could get killed and promise not to sue them if anything happened to me. My friend Garrett drove us up there and as we made our way up and back from Lehi all I could think about was how long it was taking to drive there and that I would have to ride on my bicycle all that distance and much, much more the next day.

After getting back from that, I began gathering all of the things that I would need for the next day. Sunglasses, bike pump, helmet, gloves, water bottles, tools, spare tubes, patch kit, etc. We planned on leaving our apartment around 5:40 to get there by 6:10 so I got to bed around 10:30, I think. During the night I slept pretty well, but I woke up probably 3 times between 3:30 and when my alarm went off at 5:00. Luckily I was able to fall right back asleep each time. The way I was feeling kind of reminded me of the way I felt when I was younger on the day before leaving on vacation or before a big wrestling tournament or something.

Once my alarm went off, I was up and out of bed. I first tried to force myself to eat some good food for breakfast. I think I ended up eating a few pieces of toast along with one or two strawberries. I hoped that would be enough, along with the large portion of spaghetti from the night before, to get me through the first portion of the race. I grabbed the clothes that I set out the night before and got dressed, then put one last shot of lube on my chain, grabbed all of my junk, and raced out to Dave's car at 5:45. (I'm always a little late)

I had a feeling of doom and gloom sweep over my body as I sat in the car, riding to Thanksgiving Point. It was as if I were being transported to a camp where I would be doing hard labor all day. I was still excited, but I knew that I was in for a long, hard day of riding and I had never done more than about 61 miles in a single day before. Eventually that feeling wore off, but it was replaced by a feeling of absolute inferiority. When we pulled into the parking lot near the starting line, we saw hundreds of riders on bikes that cost more than my car. Everyone was decked out in matching kits (bike shorts and jerseys). I felt out of my league as we got out of the car and started getting our bikes down.

We rode up to the main pavilion to meet Garrett before the ride started. At the pavilion there was an assortment of bagels, muffins, fruit, and drinks. I supplemented my earlier breakfast with a half muffin (1/4 blueberry, 1/4 poppy seed), some orange juice, and a handful of grapes. I have come to love eating grapes before my rides because they are full of water and they seem to give me magical strength while I am riding. After this, we made our way to the starting line to wait for our chance to depart.

The people who registered to ride as a team were allowed to begin leaving at 6:30, and after all of the teams left, individuals were allowed to leave. We made it to the starting area right as they announced that individual riders could leave. They started out approximately 100 riders every 5 minutes or so, and we got to start in the first group almost exactly at 6:45. There were a lot of people surrounding me as we rolled out under the starting banner where the antennas attached to our rider number officially started our time. Luckily I remembered to reset the odometer on my bike computer so that I could get a real recording of my ride statistics.

The first 10 miles, or so, of the ride were pretty much a blur. With so many other cyclists around you, it's harder to stay with your friends than you would think. Dave went a little slower at the start because he wanted to give his legs some time to warm up before getting up at a quick pace. Garrett jumped ahead of me and I was content to stay in between them (mainly because I didn't have a tire pump with me, so if my tire popped I would need one of them to stop and let me use their pump). Riding in a large group was some of the most fun I've had in a while. There were always people passing people and resting behind people. Pretty soon, I jumped in behind a group of riders and off we went. I passed Garrett sometime and before I knew it, we passed the first rest stop at 16 miles in. I pulled off a little bit and waited for Garrett and Dave to catch up.

Garrett spotted me and pulled up next to me, but when Dave showed up, he was apparently warmed up because he just flew around the corner and was out of sight. I took off after him and Garrett followed. Eventually I caught up to him, and together we pushed on to the rest stop at 25 miles. There, we all got off of our bikes and rested for about 5 or 10 minutes. I helped myself to a few quarter peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, some grapes and some Gatorade and water. We all still felt good, so we jumped back on the bikes and set off again.

After a few minutes, we again got separated and I think that I ended up between Garrett and Dave. This stretch of the road took us out of the semi-inhabited neighborhoods between Lehi and Provo and down next to Utah Lake. Again, I jumped behind another rider, this one wearing clothes announcing himself as a fat cyclist, and started passing people. It was around this point that we passed the first photographer out on the course. I was going to pose, but I still felt like a newbie rider and I didn't know if posing was looked down upon. So I just tried to make myself look like I had done these long rides several times before and I rode on.

I don't remember much about the ride from here until the next rest stop except that I ended up getting there first. There was a big line to refill water bottles, so I started waiting and as I waited, both Garrett and Dave rolled up. We didn't take long at this stop because we were all still feeling good. I believe the stop was at about 38 miles and the next would be at 48 miles, just under half-way through the ride. I decided to stick back with Dave and not worry about going fast, something that I would decide several more times over the remainder of the ride.

As we set off for this leg, the large group had somewhat dissipated. Some riders were registered for the 35 or 60 mile route and had turned off the 107 mile route and the rest of the group was beginning to string out along the road. I hung back and took it easy for a bit, but when people started passing me, I jumped in behind them and rode on their wheel so I wouldn't have as much wind resistance. This was good for me, but again I ended up on the road without either of my friends. I just hung out behind a guy who was doing a pace that I liked and pedaled along. About this time, I realized that I hadn't put any sunscreen on and that the left side of my body was getting a lot of sun (since we were riding South, for the most part).

I stuck behind the man in front of me until I saw a long gradual incline in front of us. I'm generally a little quicker on uphill climbs, so I jumped around him and rode through to the next group in front of me. There, I caught up with Garrett and we rounded a corner to see a little more uphill. I wasn't paying attention and I almost missed the turn off of the main route for the next rest stop. 48 miles (approximately) down! Half way (almost) and I was feeling fine. This rest stop was well stocked with lunchy foods like pasta salad, sandwiches, chips, cookies, pretzels, fruit snacks, granola bars, fruit, and sports drinks. I think I ate a cookie, some pasta salad, several quarter PB&J's, some grapes, a few handfuls of pretzels, and mixed up some fresh Gatorade for my bottle. Aside from food, I also found a table full of different bug repellents and sun block. I helped myself and felt better about my chances to not get burned. The one drawback to this rest stop was that we had to go down a huge hill to the beach area where it was set up, which means we had to ride back up it to get back to the trail. The next rest stop was scheduled for mile 72 in Elberta, Utah, and I knew from looking at a map beforehand that this would be the hardest leg of the route, through Genola and Goshen and up to Elberta. This leg would also put me over 61 miles for my longest single day bike ride in my life. 24 miles to the next stop, and we were off.

We got up the hill to the route and went about 4-5 miles when all of a sudden, I heard a loud "PSSSSSSSSSSssssssssss!" My initial thought was, "I hope that wasn't me!" But I looked down and saw my front tire rapidly flattening. I quickly applied the brakes and stopped. I was glad I didn't lose control and crash. Luckily, I was together with both Dave and Garrett, so they stopped with me while I changed my tube. When I got it out of the tire, I saw a large, 30 mm rip in the tube. I don't know haw it happened, but I was glad to have a spare tube with me. So I put in the new one, pumped up and we were back on the road. The great thing was that almost every group of riders that passed us on the side of the road at least yelled out to us to make sure we had all of the tools that we needed to fix it. I was happily surprised with how nice everyone was. Luckily that flat tire was all of the mechanical difficulty that any of us had all day.

The leg we were on was very rough roads and there were multiple cattle guards which I was afraid would shake parts right off of my bike. The leg had several climbs, which I enjoyed. After my flat, I think Garrett was anxious to get moving again and he took right off from us. Eventually I made my way up to the front of a group of riders and I couldn't see anyone else in front of me. So I had to be careful to not lose the path because everyone else was following me. After much climbing, there was a big downhill which was a welcome relief for my legs. But after that, we turned onto an old highway which was a long steady gradual hill. I got stuck out on the road all alone, with nobody to break the wind for me. The long slope began to take its toll on me, but it did on others too and soon I had caught up to a group of three that I hunkered in behind. I noticed that I was getting pretty short on water. A gas station appeared and I saw several bikes parked out front, but no food or water. I knew it wasn't the stop, so I kept on going even though those in front of me stopped. Just about a mile past that gas station, I rounded a corner and saw the real rest stop, with Garrett waiting. It turns out he got locked in on someone else's wheel who pulled him all of the way up the hill.

We waited there for Dave, I put on some more sun block and used the restroom. I also ate some more PB&J, pretzels, and grapes and topped off my water. I was definitely winded by this point. That long hill really took it out of me. I knew now that we were at the highest point on the journey and it was all downhill from there. Well, almost all downhill. It was also good to know that there were 3 more stops (80 miles, 90 miles, and 100 miles).

Garrett and I took off without Dave from Elberta (he told us it was ok) and we were really cooking. I should mention how hard it was to start riding again after each stop. My legs would get all well and rested, but getting them to push the pedals around again was more difficult after each stop. Once they got going, I was fine, but just getting them going was the hard part. Anyways, we were really cooking. A couple passed us, but a little bit down the road, we caught them and just sat behind them. Their pace was really comfortable for me and we chugged along with them for about 10 or 15 minutes. I gave a glance backwards to check how Garrett was doing, but he was nowhere to be seen, which was really confusing since he had been there just a minute before. I looked backwards and saw he was about 400 yards behind me, and off of his bike.

I turned around and started riding back to him, thinking that he had a flat tire or something, but when I was about 100 yards from him, he got back on and slowly started riding towards me. So I turned back around and rode slowly so that he could catch up. When he caught up, he told me that all of a sudden, his energy just totally left him and he got very light-headed. He had stopped and stuffed down some type of energy bar. A few minutes later, he seemed to be back to normal. We passed the stop at 80 miles, thinking that it wasn't the real stop because it was really at about 78 instead of 80. My water was getting warm, which made it hard to drink. Around this point I was getting really hot so I was pouring more of my water on me than I was drinking it. Garrett recovered nicely from his fatigue and left me in his dust. I caught up to him at the 90 mile stop. Dave also caught us here.

It was at this stop that I made my huge blunder. I got off of my bike and walked over to the water to refill my bottles. Since the water was warm, I opened my bottles and dumped them out on the way. I poured a full bottle and a little bit out on the gravel only to discover that there was no water in the jugs to refill with. Apparently this was the exact stop where they ran out of water the year before. It was getting later in the day (around 1 pm) and it was warm, and I had no more water. So we had to wait while some volunteers drove from other rest stops with more water. All the while, I tried to eat grapes, but all I really wanted was pretzels which made me more thirsty. In the end, more water showed up with ice and I was able to refill both of my bottles. We all cheered the guy who unloaded the water.

With that, we all set off again. I once again decided to ride with Dave since I figured his wife and Shanna would be waiting together at the end of the ride to see us finish. Again however, I took off on a climb and was alone on the road. This next-to-last leg took us in to Saratoga Springs. It was pretty hilly. No huge climbs, but lots of smaller ups and downs which I normally like, but was not so excited for after 90 miles of riding already. Once I got over the last hill, I noticed my stomach really starting to hurt. I coasted most of the way down and struggled the last few miles in to the final rest stop at 100 miles. I had the joy to watch my bike computer tick over from 99.99 miles to 100.00 just before the rest stop. Hooray! my first real century. Now I just had to finish.

At this final stop, I felt really hungry. I figured this was why my stomach was hurting. It kind of felt like right before dinner on a fast Sunday. So, I pounded a full PB&J, a bag of chips or two, several Oreos, some pretzels, a rice crispies treat and got some Gatorade. My stomach felt a little bit better so I figured this was the problem. Garrett took off from the final stop without us, and me and Dave left together a few minutes later. This time I truly decided to stay with Dave to the finish.

We hopped up on our bikes and set off on the final 7 miles. Instantly, I knew something was not good. My stomach was on fire. I felt hungry, bloated, and nauseous all at the same time. I really struggled for a few miles. I kind of got a second wind and we started moving quicker. We crosses Pioneer Crossing and started riding through a neighborhood. We could feel how close we were getting. Dave asked if we were getting a tailwind, to which I replied, "I think so." About a half mile before the end, we rounded a corner and then another so that we had turned a full 180 degrees. After this we knew we had been having a pretty good tailwind because it had turned into a strong headwind. What a horrible way to finish a long race, directly into the wind. A very large and round man passed us on this last stretch and I wondered how he had been able to do all that I had just done. He must have had some strong legs. Over the last quarter mile, I accelerated a little to catch a couple who was in front of me. Seeing the finish banner and Shanna and Calvin on the side of the road, I felt a huge welling of emotion within me. Pride, relief, happiness, joy, gratitude. I don't know exactly what it was. I didn't cry, but I just felt good. I don't think Shanna saw me pass, as she was tending to Calvin, but I passed by her and under the banner stopping my time at about 7 hours and 58 minutes. Dave finished shortly after (15 seconds back or so).

A lady handed us a sticker right as we finished, for putting on our car to advertise the race. I rode over to Shanna, chatted for a minute, then Dave and I rode to the car and put our bikes on the holder. Then, with Shanna, Calvin, and Amanda (Dave's wife) we went over to the celebratory all-you-can-eat pasta lunch. I got a big bowl of Alfredo pasta, but could only eat about 8 bites. After about 30 minutes of talking and relaxing together, we took off and went home.

All in all, I consider the ride a success. Not only because I finished, but because I enjoyed it enough to want to do it again. I don't want to do it again soon, but I think I would enjoy doing one of these rides every year. It would be great for helping me stay in shape. I just want to be a little bit more prepared for the next one I do. Here is a picture of my bike computer at the end of the day. It shows a total of 109.61 miles ridden. This probably is a little bit over what I actually rode. The paper about the course we got said it was 105 miles, the all of the signs along the route said 107. I don't know exactly what it was, but it was over 100. On a side note the lifetime odometer on my bike is at 982 miles. In a week or so, I should tick over to 1000 miles ridden on my bike. That's pretty cool.

A few extra notes on the ride:

1. Only the back of my knees and my bum were sore the next day (Sunday). By Monday, I felt totally fine.

2. I think my stomach pain was caused by dehydration, which caused me to get gassy.

3. That night my friend Garrett ate 2 bowls of pasta (at the party), a stake meal at Outback, a chocolate milkshake from McDonalds, 4 bagels, and more. I only had 8 bites of pasta and half of a Costa Vida salad (I usually finish my whole salad and Shanna's if she lets me). It wasn't until Monday that my appetite really came back.

4. Sorry there are not many pictures here. Here is a link to see the pictures the photographers along the route took of me. http://www.zazoosh.com/events/searchPhotos/456?bib=1865 In two of the pictures, you can almost see Garrett. He's the one in the yellow shirt.

CAD model of Paintball Gun

2011-06-17T14:57:00.005-06:00

Here are the final pictures of my paintball gun modeled up in the computer.

New parts

2011-06-01T15:34:00.003-06:00

New paintball gun parts modeled: The fore grip and mount (Sorry it's so small. Click it to see the normal size)

My Next Project

2011-05-26T10:59:00.005-06:00

I have started a project this summer with the hopes of entering the final result into a competition to win an Ipod Touch. The project is that I am modeling my paintball gun in CAD. Then I will render it to make it look really slick and enter it into a visualization competition that Siemens, the company who makes the CAD system I use (NX), puts on. I haven't done much interactive CAD modeling since I took ME 172 in 2006, so I'm hoping this will help me remember some of my lost interactive CAD modeling skills. If you don't know, I do lots of CAD every day, but most of the stuff I do is writing computer programs to do what I want to do. Mainly I am posting pictures on here to show Shanna because she was wondering if I had modeled any cool parts yet.

This is the knob that controls the speed of the paintballs.

This is a guard on the back of the gun that protects the hammer.

This is the hammer that pushes the paintballs out of the barrel.

This is the barrel.

So I haven't modeled a ton of parts yet, or done much to make them look realistic, but it's coming along. Maybe I'll post more here as I go.

Disc Golf - Spanish Fork Course

2011-05-08T12:54:00.007-06:00

Yesterday I had the chance to go down to Spanish Fork in order to play their disc golf course. I went disc golfing a few weeks ago with some friends from my church up in American Fork and every since then, I have been itching to go again. I've been reading about the different types of discs that are out there and which disc is good for what.

I decided that I wanted a few more to try out, so I placed an order online to get two new discs. One was the Discraft Buzzz which seems to be one of the best all-around discs on the market. I also picked up the Innova Starfire which is supposedly the best for sidearm throwers, which is me. Surprisingly, even though the order was received on Monday, the discs arrived by mail on Thursday. Perfect timing, I thought, as I got excited about giving the discs a try on Saturday morning.

I had invited about 50 people to go with me, but all refused. So I got up bright and early at 7:00 and set off on my own. The course is located just off of the old highway (89) by some railroad tracks just outside of Spanish Fork Canyon. The course is built around an old gravel pit at the mouth of the canyon. It was pretty easy to find and I was somewhat surprised that I was the only person there on a Saturday morning. As I sat in my car getting my stuff ready, I chalked my being alone to the fact that it was still fairly early in the morning. When I finally got out of my car, my reasoning was proven to be wrong.

As I stepped out onto the course, I was met by gale force winds. Immediately, I realized that I was the only one on the course because the wind was blowing at around 30 miles per hour. It turns out that I picked the exact wrong time to go to that course. The chart below shows the average wind speed at the mouth of Spanish Fork canyon by season as a function of the time of day. And as you can see, 7:00 am is right at the peak of the wind speed curves for each season. I don't know if it's spring or summer right now, but the wind almost knocked me over at times, so I would assume the wind on Saturday was summer wind. It's no wonder they installed a bunch of wind generators there.

Being the trooper that I am, and not wanting all the gas I used to go to waste, I stayed and played the round of 18 holes. I actually pared several of the holes. But most of the time, the wind had its way with me. The wind caused several things to happen depending on what disc I threw or how I threw it. Sometimes it would lose all lift and just drop 5 feet almost instantly, sometimes the wind would double the lift and throw the disc sky high. On throws with any rotation relative to the ground at all, the wind would stop all forward motion and rotate the trajectory almost 90 degrees.

There are two throws that typified my day. The first throw was actually pretty decent. It went straight about 60 yards and then skipped across the ground to within about 20 feet of the basket. However, as it skipped the wind picked up and lifted it about 10 feet off of the ground where another gust pushed it backwards and to the left, causing it to move off of the hill top "green" and roll down the hill until my new position was slightly shorter than 60 yards from the basket and much farther to the left. Of course, my next throw then had to be made directly into the wind.

My second representative throw was made from about 30 yards from the basket. This throw was made directly into the wind. There was a telephone throw about 20 yards ahead on my right. After I released the disk I could see it drifting right, but I thought it would miss the pole. It didn't. It nicked the pole, which opened up the bottom of the disk to a nice gust. The gust pushed the disc up and backwards. The disc came to rest about 15 yards behind where I actually threw it from originally.

So that was basically my day. The course I thought would be really fun if it weren't so windy. It was built around a gravel pit, so while down in the pit, the wind wasn't quite so bad. However, most of the tees and baskets were up an top of hills, which made it really hard to put and drive effectively. I was really happy with the pars that I did get though and I'd love to play there again without the wind.

On a side note, because of the gravel and wind, I decided not to try my new discs out in order to preserve their newness and not subject them immediately to dings, chips, and scratches. Maybe next time...

Winter Driving Courtesy

2011-01-01T07:22:00.003-07:00

Last night I made a trip to the airport to pick up my sister-in-law. The part I dreaded about the trip was the winter weather that we have had the past few days. I don't like driving in the snow, especially when there are other people driving in snow. Luckily, last night there was only one stretch of the highway that had visible snow on the road. I took note of some things as I was driving that really bug me about driving in the winter, particularly when other drivers do, or don't do, them. It annoys me when:

1. Drivers don't knock off those huge ice chunks behind their wheels (see picture below). - First of all, those things look disgusting. Secondly, when you are driving down the freeway at 55 miles per hour on an icy road and you hit a pot hole those big chunks fall off. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREEWAY. This leaves anywhere from one to four basketball-sized hunks of black/brown ice right in front of the Altima behind you. You may say, but if it's an SUV behind me, it's no big deal. However you would be wrong because eventually there will be an Altima behind you. And that Altima will have to either swerve out of the way (not a great idea on a crowded icy freeway) or hold its breath and hope the ice doesn't knock its exhaust pipe off. So next time you go to drive your car, kick those sick chunks of crap off of your wheel wells. Or park next to me, because I kick them off of cars I walk past too.

2. Drivers only scrape a basketball-sized hole in the ice on their windshield, like this guy. - I really don't get this one. There is absolutely no way the driver of a car like that can see anything but a round patch of pavement directly in front of their hood. I mean, they don't even scrape any off of the driver's window to look beside them. My guess is that they think their defroster will get rid of all of the ice during their 10 minute drive to wherever. But when the ice is thick and covered in snow, it doesn't. I walk to school for the most part during the winter. I see these cars drive by all the time and I stay as far away from them as possible.

3. Drivers don't scrape the snow and ice off of their whole car. This one specifically refers to when they are driving on the freeway. In the morning to drive 5 minutes on surface streets to school, I don't care about this one. But if you're going to drive on the freeway, I think you should clear the snow and packed ice off of your whole vehicle. Why? Because going 65 miles per hour, it all blows off anyway, on the car right behind you. Ice on your hood and roof also fall off, right in front of the Altima behind you. Mostly though, it's just a nuisance, making whoever is driving behind them use their wipers even though it's not snowing outside.

On a side note, I want to give thanks to the many plow drivers on the streets. Whoever you are, you do an excellent job, at least in Utah, of keeping the roads clear of snow. That job must really stink. You have to drive all night and all day back and forth over the same roads cleaning off asphalt that you already plowed 4 times. Kind of like cleaning up after children. You guys have my respect. Plow on, my friends.

New Summer Project

2010-07-10T19:40:00.001-06:00

Well, since Shanna and I still don’t have a TV, I am forced to find things to occupy my time after I get home from work in the evenings. Until about 6:30 or so, I think it has become my job to entertain and feed Calvin because Shanna does that all day. After he goes to bed though, I have a few hours where I can sit around or do something.

We found some old rusted bikes here at the place we’re staying, and I pulled a few into the garage to see how much work they would need to fix. They are the really cool old Schwinn cruiser style bikes. Both are very cool. I was going to fix up this one.

However, as I tried to take it all apart, I ran into some difficulty because a rusty bolt head broke off while the bolt was still in the hole. I tried to drill it out, but to no avail. Actually, I may know how to fix it now, but I’ve moved on to another bike.

The one I’m going to fix now is pictured below.

This is a pretty old Schwinn Black Phantom. It’s got a really cool front suspension with shock absorber, a front fender with a switch on light (which may or may not work right now), a sweet chain guard, and a really cool curvaceous frame. Here’s a better picture of the frame’s curves.

It’s missing some parts because it’s supposed to look like this.

You will notice that the one I found is missing the tank on the frame, the light cover, the seat, the chain, and the wheels(It’s actually only missing the front wheel).

Anyway, right now it’s just a hunk of rust, so I’ve been removing the rust and trying to get the bike all taken apart, which I finally succeeded in doing this evening. Believe it or not, I had it all disassembled before today except for the part shown below.

This part holds the handlebar stem on to the front fork. Unfortunately, this morning when I tried to take it off, it was rusted to the headset. I pulled and hammered on the bike trying to get it off, but to no avail. Of course I didn’t want to break anything though, so I was trying to be careful and forceful at the same time.

I read all of the information I could online about getting it out and tried the advice. I went to a bike shop and asked one of the old mechanics how to get an old Schwinn stem out of the headset. He said to use some Liquid Wrench which would penetrate the rust and allow me to get it loose. I don’t have any of that, so I used vinegar instead, which I read would work. I also posted on a bike website asking for help. Someone gave me a pointer and it worked like a charm. 5 hours after the vinegar was applied, I twisted the parts apart(And the tip I got online said I would need to wait overnight).

So anyway. Hopefully by the end of the summer I have a cool old cruising bicycle that I can ride around Provo in the fall. I hope you all have been following the Tour de France that started last week. Armstrong is around 19th place, and Schleck is around 5th I think.

RC Airplane Demo

2010-06-08T20:09:00.001-06:00

Hey everybody. You might want to watch this movie that shows my airplane all assembled and working because who knows what will happen when I go out and fly it for the first time. Maybe I'll have Shanna capture video of my first flight and then put it up here.

Two things about the video:

1. The plane is a whole lot louder in person than it is on video.

2. Sorry about the creepy smile at the end of the video.

Bird Watching

2010-06-06T20:47:00.001-06:00

The house here in Idaho provides us with the chance to see some pretty birds. For example, today we were looking out the window when we saw about 3 or 4 western tanagers. Of course we didn’t know that’s what they were until we watched them for a while and then looked up what they were on the internet. (The internet is so smart!) If you’re wondering what a western tanager is, see below. This is not to be confused with the western teenager, which is shown here. (Although this specimen looks like she may be no more than a western tweenager)

This place also has an abundance of red-winged blackbirds, which look really neat when they zoom past your car.

Hopefully we’ll see some more neat birds before the summer is over.

Book Review: 1776

2010-06-05T08:30:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I finished reading the book 1776 by David McCullough, which you could probably guess is about the year 1776. I really enjoyed the book. At first I thought that it would focus on all of the events that were taking place in the midst of the American Revolution and development of the country. But to my surprise, and enjoyment, the book focused only on the military trials, struggles, and successes of the Continental Army and General George Washington throughout the calendar year (and a little bit more) of 1776. I thought it funny that the Declaration of Independence (which obviously took place in 1776) is only talked about on 2 or 3 pages out of 300. The book picks up late in the year 1775 after the Boston Massacre, The Battle of Bunker Hill, and a few other minor skirmishes.

One thing that I liked about this book was the information that was gleaned from personal accounts and letters written by Washington, top Generals on both sides of the war, and civilians. I personally didn’t know about 90% of the content of this book. The battle of Dorchester Heights, the battle of Long Island and New York, the battle of Trenton were all things I had either never learned, or long since forgotten. Yet these events are very fascinating and are important parts of our nation’s history. Many of the patriotic stories that we have heard since childhood come from this period and these events.

The book also sheds light not only on Washington’s strengths, but his weaknesses. It highlights how close to complete failure the Revolution almost was. I thought that the year 1776 would have been a very successful year for the United States, but in fact, militarily, aside from a few glimmers of hope it was hugely unsuccessful and things were looking very grim. Washington’s indecisiveness cost the Army valuable positions, resources, and soldiers. However, his humility, dignity, and patriotism also inspired the troops to persevere to the end.

The reason I picked up this book was because I had heard (through the grapevine) that it was good and I was interested in learning a bit more about the founding and establishment of the United States. I thought this book was great, although I will have to read another book to get a little bit more about the non-military founding fathers who were merely mentioned in passing throughout this book. Great book. I recommend it.

Potty Emergency

2010-06-01T20:32:00.000-06:00

(Everyone remembers this classic episode, right?)

This is a true story, though parts of it may or may not have been embellished to make it better.

I finally got to go in to work today for the first time. I haven’t been allowed to go in because Korea hasn’t completed and returned my criminal background check yet for this employment with the Department of Energy at Idaho National Laboratories. They filed a waiver for me which came through last week allowing me to start today. So being my first day, they sat all of the new hires down in a conference room and pelted us with PowerPoint slides about anything and everything relating to our new employer.

In the back of the room, there were snacks including muffins, coffee, water, and some fruits. After an hour or so, I got up and poured myself a glass of water. It was really good chilled water. The cup wasn’t large, it probably held only about 8 oz. or so. After about 30 minutes we had a scheduled break and I was dying to use the bathroom. So I ran in there and relieved myself.

Since the water was so good, on my way back to my seat, I refilled my cup with some more water and drank it. Pretty soon it was lunch time and I was on my way out to the car to get my lunch that was stowed in the trunk. On the way, I realized that I had to go use the restroom again. It was probably about an hour after my second cup of water, but since I was on lunch and I didn’t really have a way back into the facility until shortly before 1, I decided to hold it.

I went to a nearby LDS church and ate lunch in the parking lot and on the bleachers by the baseball field adjacent to the parking lot. The urge had left me and I turned on a sports talk show that I enjoy listening to. At the end of the show, I took a swig from a water bottle that was in the car and remembered my need to use the bathroom. Luckily it was almost 1, so somebody would be at the doors to let me in since I didn’t have my ID card yet.

I drove maybe a little faster than normal to the building and hurried myself through the parking lot and into the building. Immediately, I made a beeline for the urinal. (I bet you thought that I wasn’t going to make it in time, or I was going to have an accident, didn’t you?) After using the bathroom, the lady in charge told me and another kid there that all of the training computers were being used and we would be taken down the hall to do some other paperwork, and then we would switch places with the others.

Well, we went down the hall and proceeded to fill out paperwork. After completing about 5 different forms, we were taken into an onsite medical facility where they took our height, weight, and had us read the lines on the posters to check our eyes. Then they called me back and produced a urine cup explaining that I needed to give them a sample to be drug tested. I was a bit embarrassed, and told the lady, I don’t think I can go because I had just gone maybe 6 minutes ago. She said she just needed a little so give it a try.

I took the cup into the bathroom. I was worried because I really had no desire or urge at all to use the bathroom. (This is the real emergency) I stood there in the bathroom trying to will myself to go, but I couldn’t. I was thinking of waterfalls, sprinklers, pouring water, anything to trigger the urge. But I was pretty empty. I thought I may have to sit in the office for a while before producing the required amount. Luckily, just as I thought I would give up, success!

I took the cup back to the lady praying that it was enough. It was below the line she told me I had to fill it to, but as she poured it into the vial, we saw it fill it up perfectly. I mentioned to the lady that if I had known about needing the urine, I would’ve been able to wait to use the bathroom so that I was sure to have enough. She told me that if I knew, then it wouldn’t have been a random test. So, Cheers to my amazing body that was able to produce the exact amount of waste needed on the spot and in a pressure situation. Definitely not your typical potty emergency.

Recent Acquisition

2010-05-29T20:35:00.008-06:00

A little over a week ago, I got my graduation present in the mail. Well, I guess I purchased it with some money that I was given for graduation (Thanks again Mom, Dad, and Grandma Hansen). The item I purchased is a remote controlled airplane. It is a replica of a F-86 Sabre made of EPO (Expanded PolyOlefin) foam which is powered by an electric motor which blows air through a duct running the length of the airplane. The plane came in a box and it was completely in pieces. Luckily, I've built a lot of models in my youth, so it's very simple to piece together. The trouble is finding a glue that will hold it properly.

Online, I have found countless threads talking about the benefits and drawbacks to almost every glue. I purchased a glue that should work (basically it is just super glue). The trouble I'm having is figuring out the best method for applying and curing the glue. Since I have no idea of the best way, I am just doing it the best I can and hoping that the wings don't fall off mid-flight.

Here are some pictures of the process.

1. Had to glue on the tail stabilizers/elevators
2. Had to attach the push rods to the control horns and the control horns to the elevators.
3. Had to attach the wing assembly to the fuselage.5. Still remaining to do: Attach the vertical stabilizer, attach the bombs to the wings, build battery charger, install the battery, go have some fun flying it. (This is more like what it will finally look like)

Along with the new plane, I had to get a more intense transmitter. This is a 4 channel transmitter which means it can control the throttle, elevators, ailerons, and rudder
More to come as I get more done.

Book Review: Artemis Fowl

2010-05-12T12:34:00.001-06:00

I was hoping that this book would last a little longer than it did. I borrowed it from Rob and Lindsey for this summer since our internet usage will be a bit more limited than normal and I needed some things to entertain me besides watching stuff online. Well, I pulled the book out of its box on Sunday or Monday and I’m done with it now. Luckily I also borrowed this book’s sequel from Rob and Lindsey.

Rob warned me that the writing was a little bit elementary, and it was. But that didn’t distract from the entertaining story. I guess the juvenile quality of this book contributed to the speed with which I moved through the book.

The book is about a 12 year old named Artemis Fowl who is a genius and hatches schemes to earn money and gain power and influence. He kidnaps a fairy in hopes of extracting a large gold ransom from the fairy civilization.

I thought the story was very creative, bringing fairy tale stories to life. The most entertaining part of the book to me was how the author explained and gave evidence of the reality of Dwarfs, Goblins, Fairies, and Trolls. He attributes natural phenomenon with these fictitious civilizations.

All in all, a good, entertaining read. I give it a rating of 3 out of 4.

One More Day

2010-04-20T22:21:00.003-06:00

Only one more day before I graduate from college with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. Only one more night (tonight) before my last presentation for an undergraduate class. Maybe I should be sleeping so that I'm rested for my very important presentation? Nah!

Instead I am up listening to the Suns game. They are destroying Portland right now. I may be drowsy tomorrow in my final, but just hearing Al McCoy put the game "In the Deep Freeze" makes it all worth it. The other part that makes it worth it is that Shanna let me stay up and listen to it, which means that she won't be mad at me for making her go to bed alone.

I must say, I'm pretty lucky that Shanna lets me watch/participate in as many sports as she does. She's awesome! and she got a new haircut today that looks really good.

Sorry, boring post. If you want something interesting to read, click here.

Family History

2010-03-17T20:44:00.003-06:00

Have you guys seen that new show on TV that's called "Who Do You Think You Are?" I watched one episode of it and I thought that it was pretty cool. If you haven't, it's a show that takes some major celebrities (Emmett Smith, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, etc)I'm and tracks their family history back in time. The reason they use celebrities I'm sure is to get viewers to watch, but to me the cool part wasn't that there were celebrities, but the fact that the celebrities were actually getting excited learning about their ancestors. It kind of reminded me that I should be doing the same.

Recently, my dad gave me a copy of his dad's personal history because I kept asking him for it. I have already read some of it, most of it actually, and I am enjoying re-reading it now. I find it really interesting to read about how his life was similar to mine and the many ways in which it was much different. My Grandma Hansen sent me a thick stack of papers that details many of my ancestors going back well into the 1800's. This was also very interesting, and it was enlightening to read about the trials, joys, and hardships that were experienced in a time without any of the nice luxuries that we have today. I'm glad to have all of these in my possession.

I find many stories in these histories to be very amusing and enlightening. One story that I read tonight in my Grandpa Selin's history was particularly interesting, though it wasn't about him. In the chapter he wrote about his brother, he mentions a time when his brother was on night guard in the Army. He took a grenade and pulled the pin. He then passed the live grenade off to the person who relieved him at his post. The grenade served to keep him and the next man awake and alert while on guard duty, owing to their great desire and attention to not set off the pin-less grenade. Then as grandpa often does, he relates the story to a gospel principle.

I'm grateful for all of my faithful ancestors and the things that I can learn from them.

Bowling for T-Shirts

2010-02-11T20:22:00.005-07:00

I'm in a bowling class here at BYU. I've taken the class a few times because the cost for it is hidden in with my tuition so it feels like I get to go for free. So, I get to bowl for an hour twice a week. I've really been able get some basic techniques down and I can even get my ball to hook pretty accurately. Let alone it's not a big drastic hook like the pro's use, but it induces some pretty good pin action. (Usually)

The BYU Games Center, where the bowling alley is, has a policy that if you bowl a 200 or more, you get a free t-shirt. They also have a policy that if you get 4 strikes in a row then you get a free game coupon. If your score is over 200 and the highest score on the particular lane you're bowling on for the month then you get your name and score on the high score board.

The alley has 3 styles of shirt, and I had won two of them prior to the beginning of the semester. I've been trying to score over 200 again so that I could get the last shirt, and then I could start winning shirts for Shanna.

Until last week I had been bowling pretty well, but hadn't had any real high scoring games. Last Wednesday I told my buddy in my class that it was about time for a big score. Sure enough, that day I bowled a 219. I missed 2 pins over the entire game, and picked up a nice string of 4 strikes in a row. A girl from the Games Center ran over asking who had just bowled 4 strikes in a row and then gave me a free game coupon. On my way out I snagged the last shirt I needed for my collection. I wrote down my bowling name (Eban Sr.)for them to put on the wall and was on my way to my next class.

Then on Monday, I wasn't really expecting to do too well, but I put together a 203, and on a different lane than last Wednesday. I also managed 4 strikes in a row. So I walked up to the desk and asked for my shirt and free game. The girl said that I could have one or the other. I told her that last time (the previous Wednesday) they had given me both a shirt and a free game. Big Mistake. She notified me that you can only win one shirt per semester. So sorry Shanna, no shirts for you. She was nice though and hooked me up with two more free game coupons. Not to mention my name got put up on the board on a second lane.

Wednesday we were bowling for seeding in a tournament that we will be doing. Maybe it was the pressure of a looming tournament, but I bowled very poorly the first two games, barely breaking 100 both times. Then on the third game, I got back in the groove and put up a nice 210. Again I asked for a free game, which I got. Unfortunately, I bowled the 210 on the same lane I bowled the 219 so I didn't get my name up again. That's ok though.

So, for three straight classes I've gone for more that 200. Here's hoping that streak will continue through the tournament so that I can lead my team to victory over the rest of the class.(And get more free games) Scott and I did it when we took the class together. My team won my class tournament last semester too. We'll see if my luck continues...

School and Work Update

2010-02-10T13:33:00.005-07:00

I know that a lot of you know what I do at work, but you probably don't know what I do. I'm posting a video of an application that I recently wrote. I wrote it for a class that I am in, but the class that I am in is sponsored by the company that I do research for. So basically, my class teaches how to do things that I do in research.

What I tell people that I do is CAD (Computer Aided Design) Tool Customization. What that means is I write computer programs that can do various things inside of the CAD programs. The program that we use most is Nx, which was formerly Unigraphics. So we find the CAD program's API, which is a set of programming functions that do the things that clicking the mouse on buttons usually does. (for example, your internet browser has a back button and a refresh button and a home button. Each button probably has at least one function associated with it that tells your computer what to do when it is pushed) Once we have all of the functions that we need, we can use them to do things automatically in our CAD program. This saves engineering companies time and money.

Anyways, this video shows a program that I wrote that builds an airfoil (airplane wing shape). It asks the user to input several values that will define the geometry and then when the user hits "OK" it builds it up automatically. The video shows me running the program twice with different inputs, some pretty normal ones and then some more extreme values. I rotate the part around manually after it builds so that you can see the built parts from different angles. This is probably boring all of you. But it's basically my life...Sad, huh? (but I like it)...(most of the time)...

Book Review - Where Men Win Glory

2010-02-08T19:21:00.004-07:00

Probably not too many people have heard of this book, Where Men Win Glory. Many of you will probably however recognize the name in the subtitle: "The Odyssey of Pat Tillman". Some will know him from football. I know that I first heard of him when he was playing linebacker at ASU. Then I knew him as a safety for the Arizona Cardinals, the professional football team of Arizona. Most who don't follow football however will recognize him for being the football player who turned down millions of dollars playing football to enlist in the Army shortly after the 9/11 attacks.

Jon Krakauer, famous for his book "Into Thin Air" about the Mt. Everest disaster, takes on the story of Pat Tillman in this recent publication (2009). It tells of Pat's background and gives a fairly good picture of the kind of person that he was. The life experiences shared do a good job of explaining why he wanted to put away football, for a few seasons, and go fight for his country. I thought that it was funny that it described many of Pat's Mormon friends who got in a big fight due to their intoxication. Some of the Mormons described weren't drunk but were planning on getting drunk. Anyways, that fight was a turning point in Pat's life.

The book also taught me many many interesting aspects of Afghanistan's history and political troubles that I had never even heard of. Things like how the CIA had given millions of dollars in cash and training to Muslim insurgents while they were fighting off a Russian invasion. This is how many of the Taliban leaders became leaders. Now we all know how these extremists feel about the US. I know probably 30 times more than I previously knew about the state of life, politics, and terror plots in Afghanistan.

The main subject of the book, however, is the death of Tillman by friendly fire, and the Army's apparent attempt to mask the truth of his death, whether intentional or unintentional. It's really sad that in war, even with modern technology and extensive training, friendly fire deaths are still a real threat to the lives of a soldier. That people must die is a sad fact, but friendly fire just seems even more depressing.

I absolutely loved this book. I could hardly put it down just because it mixed sports and interesting politics and current events. (We all know that I'm a ..... "Sports Fan". Right, Dave?) But the things I didn't like were: 1. There is a bit of swearing, because Krakauer uses lots of quotes and he's quoting soldiers. 2. He talks a lot about the government deliberately misleading the public, presenting it as if it is the "norm". I like to think that the government normally acts honestly, with dishonesty being the exception. It definitely seems that in the case of Tillman though that some misleading information was given both to the family and the public, for the purpose of selling a "good image" to the American public.

Read the book and decide for yourself.

Book Review - We Might As Well Win

2010-02-07T21:49:00.006-07:00

I went out and bought this book shortly after Christmas with some Christmas money. It is written by Johann Bruyneel, Lance Armstrong's cycling coach and coach of Alberto Contador another two time Tour de France champion. It was written after he had "retired" from coaching, kind of like Brett Favre retiring from football. At the time he had coached 8 Tour de France champions, Lance 7 times and Alberto once. Since then Alberto has won again and Lance has un-retired and recruited Bruyneel to coach his new team, Team Radioshack.

The book basically details several of Bruyneel's experiences through life and how they helped him to become a winner. He talks at length about what he has learned from winning and what he has learned from losing. These experiences combined to make him stronger for future victories. From a motivational standpoint, it's really kind of ho-hum, making points that I thought were pretty obvious to most people. But he does show how much winning is more a state of mind than a point in time or the luck of the draw.

What I really liked about the book is the countless stories that he uses to illustrate his points. (Ok, I could count them, but I'm not going to) In each chapter, he uses at least one example from either his racing days or his coaching days to illustrate the particular point that he's trying to make. The stories he tells are funny, interesting, and amazing. If you don't know really how pro cycling works or what the method to the madness is, you will by the end of this book because Bruyneel does a good job of explaining it in an interesting way.

So basically this book is a book full of cycling stories, and a very quick read. I normally rate books on a 3 point scale, so I would give this one a 2/3 because I enjoy the subject. For non-cycling fans, I think it may be interesting just because it explains how the sport works by the means of great story telling.

A Few Things I Know About Calvin

2010-02-03T22:36:00.003-07:00

1. He loves his mommy.
2. He likes music. (This gives me an excuse to sing my favorite songs out loud to him)
3. He stops crying when you hold him up in the air.
4. He loves to look at the picture of the temple and our wedding on the wall.
5. He doesn't like taking his bath.
6. He's the best high rainbow arc over-the-head pee-er I've ever seen.
7. He doesn't like getting his diaper changed.
8. His hands get cold easily.
9. He's pretty tough. (Minimal crying at the doctor's office when he got his shot, and minor surgery)
10. His hair gets pretty greasy.(But I think that's also due to Shanna always touching his head)

Anyone Want To Go?

2010-01-31T20:16:00.003-07:00

This past week, I've had the urge to go outside and do something. Maybe it's the winter blues or maybe it's due to the fact that I normally spend 8-12 hours a day holed up in a campus basement working on computers. I really wanted to go out and go somewhere or do something that would be memorable.

I remembered hearing about and seeing pictures of a rock formation in Arizona called "The Wave". Once you see it, you kind of understand how it got the name. Anyways, I decided that I really want to go hike out to The Wave sometime.

The only problem with going is that the Bureau of Land Management, in an effort to preserve the formation, only allow 20 people per day to go out to the formation. It's all controlled by permits. You can apply for a permit for a specific date, but to get one, you have to win the "lottery" for the permit. Turns out that there are usually about 100-150 people who apply for a permit on any given day. 10 permits are given away in advance and 10 are given away the day before in a lottery style giveaway. So chances for getting a permit online are about 10 percent and getting one the day before just depends on the day and how many people show up.

I'm hoping to get a permit sometime this year, late summer, early fall. Sometime before school starts I guess, so more likely late summer. Anyone want to go? The largest permit you can apply for is 6 people. It's about a 1-2 hour hike in to the wave, then there are places called "Hamburger Rock" and "The Wave 2" that are in the general area also. It's pretty much just a day hike, but it's right near the Utah-Arizona border, so it'll more likely than not take 2 days. (1 traveling and 1 hiking) Anyways, let me know if you want to come so that I can get in touch with you to get this thing planned. See ya later.

Mystery Rebecca

2010-01-28T19:40:00.002-07:00

I hope I don't offend, but there is a certain "Rebecca" who comments on my and Shanna's blogs sometimes. We aren't sure which Rebecca that we know to attribute the comments to. Anyone out there in the cyberworld know who it is? Rebecca, if you're reading this, and you aren't a super hero then can you reveal your secret identity?

Socks

2010-01-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

I've always loved wearing socks. When I was little, I would rather wear socks around the house than go barefoot. I also would rather wear socks outside than shoes. This probably bothered my mom because I wore them out so quickly. I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of fine socks. My whole mission, people gave me socks for presents. I think that's the standard gift in Korea, because I got a whole lot of them.

I like to always have nice thick socks that don't have holes in them. Once a sock even hints that it could become a transparent mesh of fine string (you know what I'm talking about, right?) I get rid of it or stuff it in the far reaches of the drawer so that there is no possibility of accidentally donning it in a rush. I like to think that if I keep my socks nice, my shoes won't be as stinky.

So, with this background in mind, as Bill Nye the Science Guy would put it, "Consider the Following":

When a new pair of socks is born, it is a clean slate, fresh, unpolluted, and each sock is fairly symmetric about its center line (the line that runs from heel to the gap between your 2nd and 3rd toe, counting from your big toe). However, after one or two times of wearing the sock, it begins to develop a personality of its own. Some socks get dirtier due to rain, mud, sand, etc. The main way in which they distinguish themselves though is by which side of the sock "relaxes" to accommodate the big toe. A difference between a right foot sock and a left foot sock can be evident after just one wearing. This, of course, is almost entirely dependent on which foot you wear the sock on for the first time. So, in order for me to thoroughly enjoy my socks every day, it is imperative that my right socks be grouped with a left sock when they are folded. I can't stand to wear a left foot sock on my right foot because there is tons of space by my littlest piggie while it should be snuggled in tight to the foot by the sock. It is easy to group rights and lefts on church socks and socks with designs on them, but my wife, Shanna, refuses to go through my plain socks and match them up for me when she does the laundry. She simply dumps them all into my drawer as individual socks, which forces me to fish through the drawer each morning until I can catch me a lefty and a righty.

Somebody out there has to have some sympathy for me, right? Or is this something that labels me "strange"?

Old Narocut

2009-10-03T08:50:00.000-06:00

I've been reading through some family history information that my grandma gave me, and I had the idea to make blog posts that tell some of the stories I've come across. This one is one of my favorites. The story takes place in Grantsville, Utah. It is a story about my great-great-grandmother (I think) Genevieve Wrathall Orr, who is referred to as grandmother in the story.

"One particular warm Sunday afternoon, Grandmother had been left at home to care for Aunt Eva [her sister, I think] who was the baby at that time, the rest of the family being at church, when an old Indian named Narocut knocked at the door. Narocut was known to be very mean, and the children had alwas been told to give him what he wanted, so as not to arouse his anger. Grandma was horrified when she saw him standing there. He started asking for food, which she gave him. She glanced at the clock and noticed that it was almost time for church to be out, for which she was very grateful. The Indian asked for other things, and then he demanded that she give him the baby. Grandmother was terrified but she remembered the counsel her father had given them, and realizing that the Indian couldn't get far before church dismissed, she gave him the baby. He started going West and of course passed by the [church] meeting house. The man who was standing at the pulpit saw old Narocut hurrying down the street with the baby. He notified the people in church, and Grandfather with other men there, hurriedly overtook the Indian and the baby was soon resting safely at home again."

I like the story because it's so foreign to me to think that just an old Indian man would walk up to somebody's house while the parents weren't home and demand to be given a baby. A person who does that today goes to jail. I guess that's something that people just had to deal with in the last 19th century West.

Tour de France Conclusion

2009-08-05T17:32:00.000-06:00

Sorry everyone, especially Bruce, for not finishing my coverage of the Tour this year. Seems Bruce thought that a giant UFO came and abducted all of the riders sometime between my last post and the finish of the race, or something like that. But it turns out they did finish. I just thought that nobody was following the posts due to the lack of commenting. Not that you need to comment or anything, but I see a 0 comment sign to mean that nobody is interested in the posts. Anyways,...

Wow, the last post I did was the team time trial...That was like 3 weeks ago at least. Anyway, Contador, the favorite for the race made a breakaway on an uphill mouontain top finish and just burned up to the finish line. This was very soon after the team time trial. That move put him in first place overall. Armstrong didn't get a chance to really challenge him on that though due to the fact that when Contador made his first accelleration, Armstrong was stuck with a slower group and he didn't move up for the reason of giving his teammate an advantage. This initial gap on Armstrong that Contador earned set up the most exciting part of the tour in my mind though. After losing a substantial chuck of time on Contador, Lance made a huge acceleration and charged solo across a gap of abouut 45 seconds. It was amazing. The announcers were going crazy and I was really excited. Armstrong caught up and joined Contador and a few others in the lead group. Then right at the end, Contador made another charge and took the win, but not by too much. Enough to put him in Yellow for the remainder of the tour though. Armstrong made a solo charge across a gap on one other occasion during the race. It was amazing.

In the Alps, the Schleck brothers, Andy and Frank, did as they promised and brought their "A" game. They made attempt after attempt to crack the leader Contador and other challengers, namely Lance Armstrong, Bradley Wiggins, and Andreas Kloden. They succeeded gaining time on all but Contador. Armstrong may have been able to keep up, but again, since his team leader was with them he played the teamwork card and didn't help the other challengers catch back up with Contador. Andy and Frank actually took over 2nd and 3rd place for a day or two. Andy hung on to second place overall and he won the White Jersey, denoting the best young rider in the tour. I think he won it last year too. I'm not sure what age, but the white jersey goes to the top placed rider under 25 or 24 or something.

Armstrong bounced back in the individual time trial and clinched 3rd place overall. Bradley Wiggins of Garmin Slipstream I think got 4th, though he may have only gotten 5th. Wiggins used to be a sprinter in the velodrome. Reigning gold medalist in several events in track racing and he was a big surprise in this years tour. Franco Pellizotti won the Polka Dot Jersey and is the King of the Mountains for 2009, meaning he earned the most points for being the first over the high climbs on each stage. Thor Hushovd won the Green Jersey for Best Sprinter. This seems weird because Columbia's Mark Cavendish won literally every sinlge sprint finish at this years tour. That is an amazing feat. Never was he beaten, and only once this whole year has he failed to win a group bunch sprint. However, he was penalized some points for moving off of his sprinting line in one finish, which blocked another rider from passing him. Hushovd made a daring solo attack to gather up the mid-race sprints on a particularly long and hilly stage, so he does deserve the green.
Well, that's all for this year. Congrats to all of the riders including Beppu who is the first Japanese rider to ever finish the Tour.

Clapping with Myself. (And Another Kid)

2009-07-12T16:48:00.000-06:00

This story is dedicated to Isaac Selin, my little bro who's serving a mission right now. Some of you will know why. Others will not. But it's a pretty funny story anyways. Don't worry though Isaac, I'll copy it and send it in an email to you too.

So, on Independence Day we went to the concert on the west lawn of the Capitol Building. Barry Manilow, Aretha Franklin, Sesame Street characters, and other musicians were present. We were seated on the lawn so that the stage was off a little bit to our right side and about 100 yards in front of us. We had to wait out on the lawn for about 5 hours from when we got there until the concert started. I noticed a family sitting in front of us. They had two boys maybe the ages 6 and 9. The real reason I noticed was because the 6 year old had his shirt off and was always complaining and fighting over the umbrella they brought to shade them from the sun. We ignored them, played some games and waited for the concert to start.

About 1/4 of the way through the concert after a song or video or something, I finished my applauding and waited patiently for whatever was to come next. I hadn't noticed the abnoxiously long clapping that was going on...Wait, I get ahead of myself. I didn't hear any clapping that sounded out of the ordinary. But I did hear the 9 year old in front of me turn to his dad and say, "Dad, did you hear that? I was the last one in the whole crowd to clap!" And with that challenge, I proceded to clap once, loudly, and very noticibly so that the kid knew that he was no longer the last one. He stopped talking, looked back to see who did it, turned back facing forward (to hide his anger, embarassment, and fear) and then clapped again.

I clapped again.

(You could tell that he was getting pretty annoyed)

He clapped.

I clapped three times.

He clapped.

I conceded defeat for the time being.

I didn't bother challenging him again for a little while, because I knew that he would be on the lookout for whoever had played that nasty trick on him before. I layed low until about 20 minutes later after the Sesame Street gang had sang their songs. As the applause died down, I looked forward to find the boy. There he was. I could see him preparing his hands to clap as soon as everybody else had stopped. This was my chance.

I'm pleased to say that my applause did not die down with the rest of the crowd. As the silence grew, there was only one sound wafting throug the air. The steady "Clap...Clap...Clap..." of my hands rang to the Capitol and back. "Clap...Clap...Clap..." I continued, seeing the boy still waiting for whoever the morn was that kept on clapping. "Clap...Clap...Clap..." He was really getting worried now. He didn't know what to do. He thought whoever it was would keep clapping through the next song, thus negating his attempts to be the last clap. "Clap...Clap...Clap..." I kept on going. I was determined to win this showdown. I didn't care if I made the kid cry. "Clap...Clap...Clap..." I wasn't paying attention to all of the other spectators who were turning their heads my way. This was none of their business. Between you, little kid, and me.

"Clap...Clap...Clap.."

I would've gone all night if I had to. Unfortunately, my wife stopped me. And sure enough, as soon as I stopped, he clapped, and that was it. Best two out of three. I got beat in a clapping contest by a 9 year-old. To him there is only one thing I want to say,...

"Good Form Jack! Good Form!"

I Must Have OCD

2009-07-08T03:38:00.000-06:00

So I normally do these little things like count the number of steps in each staircase I ever walk on and keep my school books stacked smallest to tallest on my desk. You know, I'm very certain about the way some things should be done. I just found another thing that I've begun doing.

I look at license plates and try to find patterns in them. Over the past few days, I've been noticing myself looking at every license plate I pass while I walk Shanna to and from the bus stop every morning. Today I found something interesting, at least to me. Out of 74 license plates that I was able to look at and read, 67 of them featured either the letter X, K(which looks awfully similar to X), or J. So that's about 90.5% of the cars on my street with a Virginia license plate. The pattern only occurs on Virginia license plates. If I included all of the Massachusetts, Maryland, and New York plates, the percentage would go way down. So, if you move to Alexandria, VA and get license plates, 9 out of 10 times, the plates will have an X, K, or J on it. I think this post solidifies my status as nerd.

These Guys Are Good!

2009-07-07T13:30:00.000-06:00

I missed a day in my Tour de France coverage, and it was a good day. Yesterday the stage was very windy and the last portion was very flat. There was a long break away by 4 riders from the very start of the race. They led by as much as 13 minutes, but that lead was reduced significantly by the 25 km to go mark. It was shortly after this mark where Team Columbia HTC made a break. They had their whole team setting pace on the front of the peloton and made a huge acceleration with about 18 km to go. The move caught more than half of the racers sleeping, only 25 or so managed to make escape from the group and chase down the 4 leaders. The windy conditions made it impossible for the rest of the group to follow and a huge gap opened up. Among the lead group was Lance Armstrong, Fabian Cancellara, Thor Hushovd, and Mark Cavendish. The riders quickly caught the 4 leading riders and blazed their way to the finish. In the end it was an amazing sprint finish with Cavendish beating out Thor Hushovd at the finish. That win was Cavendish's 15th win out of 18 sprints this year. That is amazing. Another amazing part of the day is that Armstrong, by securing a place in the break away, pulled himself up to number 3 in the general classificaion. I may have spoken too soon yesterday in saying it'd be hard for him to place this year.

Today's stage was the team time trial, new this year, which was reinstated after a 3 or 4 ear hiatus. Armstrong, in pre-race interviews, stated that he thought that his team (Astana) had a great shot at winning the race, meaning that Armstrong could move up even further in the GC. But at the same time he was a bit reserved about predicting that he would be riding in yellow tomorrow. The team time trial is a really fn event to watch because each team goes as hard as they can, sometimes even losing their own riders off of the back of their group. The fast speeds also meant a lot of accidents today. The most impressive ride of the day I would say goes to Garmin Slipstream who rode most of the stage with only 5 team members, the minimum number of riders that must cross the line to stop the time. Doing this, they still posted the 2nd fastest time. The story of the day however has to be Team Astana and Lance Armstrong. By winning the stage and beating Cancellara's team by 40 seconds, Armstrong moves up into a tie for first place in the GC!! Amazing! Although the yellow jersey was awarded to Cancellara due to a few tenths of a second difference, Armstrong shares the top time and position with him. I definitely didn't expect Armstrong to do so well. I don't think anybody did.

Then for team Astana, they hold places 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 in the GC. 7 of their riders in the top 20. Of course this will change over the rest of the race, but they rode an amazing time trial. These guys are really good!

Cav does it again

2009-07-05T17:17:00.000-06:00

Today's tour stage featured no changes in the top ten of the general classification. It did however feature the first two crashes of this year's race. Frank Schleck, one of the two brothers from Luxembourg, went down but was able to rejoin the main pack for the finish. I have been a pretty big fan of Frank and Andy Schleck ever since last year when they rode a very quality tour. I hope that they do well this year too.

One thing that I didn't mention in yesterday's post is that with Alberto Contador from Spain, team Astana, claiming 2nd place in the general classification, Lance Armstrong may find himself riding in a supportive role protecting Contador during the tour this year and not being able to have the blessing of being the team's most protected rider. He knew this coming into the tour, and I hope that he does well in whatever capacity his team needs him.

Today's stage ended in a mass sprint and I don't think that anybody is too surprised that Mark Cavendish from team Columba High Road won that. George Hincapie from the same team, a long timme veteran of the peleton, hinted that Mark Cavendish is the fastest sprinter in pro cycling, and that if he is delivered well to the sprint he will win most of the time. I agree. Of all the races I've seen this year, whenever Cavendish is among the leaders in the last half kilometer, he wins. It's really pretty amazing that he wins so frequently and consistently. Way to co Cavendish.

The Tour is Here

2009-07-04T21:40:00.000-06:00

Well, another one thing that I am looking forward to this month is the Tour De France. As some of you may know, stage 1 was held today as an individual time trial in Monaco. Fabian Cancellara, one of the favorites of the race, held off almost the entire Astana team to place first and take the first yellow jersey of the race. The real news of this opening stage is not only Cancellara's win, but the fact that of the racers, Astana holds four of the top 10 positions. Alberto Contador(2), Andreas Kloden(4), Levi Leipheimer(6), and Lance Armstrong(10) from Astana had great showings today. Whether or not Lance Armstrong will be able to perform througout the race is still unknown, but he had a good start today. I'm glad to see one of my favorite riders, Levi Leipheimer, on the leaders board as well.

I'll try to update daily throughout the race, so you can all know at least what's going on with the race. Enjoy.

Book Review: Escape from Lucania

2009-06-13T19:13:00.000-06:00

Escape from Lucania: An Epic Struggle for Survival by David Roberts

This was a book I just grabbed off of the shelf because I tend to enjoy reading about real life events, and especially about struggles and accomplishments. Escape from Lucania follows two young men on a trip to the Arctic in order to conquer North America's tallest unclimbed mountain at the time. They had spent the previous year in the area developoing maps of the uncharted territory (it was the 1930's) and surveying the mountain. The seemed to have everything worked out, but the next summer was plaguedd with warm weather which prevented their pilot from making but one trip, dropping them off in the wilderness. From there, the boys struggled up the slopes of Lucania, leaving everything behind that they didn't need including one of their sleeping bags and a huge square cut out from the bottom of their tent. After summiting Lucania, their real struggle began as they found themselves unexpectedly short on food and 100 miles from the nearest help.

Like I said before, I really enjoy the true account type books, and this like any other really caught and held my attention. Everything seemed real and the author really covered his bases interviewing all types of people for the book including most importantly the two men themselves. I enjoyed worrying and struggling with them boys as they made their way out of the mountains. I give the book a rating of 2.5/3 Enjoy it.

The Giro 2009

2009-06-03T14:22:00.000-06:00

Hello people, It's been a while since I have posted on this blog, but to see some of the posts I have made on our family blog you can visit superselins.blogspot.com. I'm going to probably bore some of you out there. (Out of the 5 people who check this blog, on a good month) Recently UniversalSports.com has shown every stage of the 21 stage road race live online. On a side note, Universal Sports seems like a cool website, and they routinely show live sporting events of olympic sports like swimming, cycling, track and field, etc.

I was able to watch a few stages of the race and follow the standings througout. Lance Armstrong ended up in 12th place overall. Pretty good out of the hundreds of riders. Levi Leipheimer finished 6th. The top five were all very capable and decorated racers, including the 2008 Tour De France winner, Carlos Sastre.

The final stage was an individual time trial, everyone riding alone, which I usually like to watch, but it was raining and the riders were taking it easy so as not to slip. The race was led by Dennis Menchov of Russia by 31 seconds going into the final stage. As he approached the finish (only about 3 minutes away) this happened: (sorry it's small and you can't see well because of the trees)

There is an even better video on Universal Sports, but I couldn't embed it. The other video is pretty wicked, and it looks like it hurt a lot. He had a big wound on his leg I think too. Anyway, It's really amazing to me, and kind of funny too, how from the second he hits the ground he's maneuvering to get up. And once he gets up, he's running to his bike. It's also crazy how quickly the guy jumps out of his car and gives him a new bike.

All in all, it's only about 10 seconds from when he crashes to when he's on a new bike riding again. In the end, Menchov finished 41 seconds ahead of the 2nd place finisher in the general classification. So, he preserved his victory of the Giro. Another pretty amazing thing is how far he slides on the wet cobblestone. He was going about 50 km/hr when he fell (31 mph). If he had fallen any differently, he could have broken a number of bones. Lucky guy.

Anyway, it was a pretty exciting finish to the race. This man has guts...and a sore hip.

You've got to be KIDDING me!!!

2009-02-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

Imagine you're in Target, wandering around the front of the store waiting for your wife (or husband, or friend). You see something that catches your eye. The sports trading card aisle. So you wander on over to take a looksie. You didn't even know that kids still bought sports cards. Aside from card games like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh (don't ask me how I know the names of those games) which were made into cartoons just to sell more, you weren't aware of any child who bought sports cards, let alone one who plays sports....

You begin to scan the aisle. You recognize the big names in cards who are still hanging around. Upper Deck,... Topps...They are all there. Then you see something you've never seen before. No wait,...They are Topps trading cards....But there is something weird about them...No,...It can't be....

You've got to be kidding me....

2009 Amgen Tour of California Recap

2009-02-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

Since I'm pretty sure that nobody except for me watched any of the Tour of California, I'm posting to my blog for all to read about. This year's race was a big one for several reasons. First of all, Levi Leipheimer (pictured above on his time trial bike) went into the race as two time returning champion. Then there was the return of big names like Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis to bike racing in the United States. Despite horrible weather and a crash early in the race, Levi won the individual time trial in stage 6 which all but sealed his 3rd straight Tour of California. Lance Armstrong also proved that he is still capable of competing in professional cycling, coming in 7th place overall. It's also worth noting that he did this while working for his team leader Levi Leipheimer to help him earn the victory. Several big names including Frank Schleck (1) and Mark Cavendish (2) also managed to pull out stage victories.

I don't know what it is about cycling that interests me so much. It may be because I'm a mechanical engineering student. Those bikes that they ride aren't toys or transportation, but precision machines. Then again, I'm not really a NASCAR car racing fan. It must be that cycling is a sport that is both dependent on cutting edge engineering as well as extreme physical feats. I mean, look at those time trial bikes and the new integrated electronic shifters. Not only the technology impresses me, but the use of physics and science in the actual racing. Riding behind each other in a straight line to reduce the effort required to keep up to speed, working together to extend a breakaway. Then there is the time that teams spend in wind tunnels working on body position to reduce their air drag any way that they can. It's really interesting to watch and learn about. Anyway, that's my report on the 2009 Tour of California. Hope you aren't too bored after reading this.

Thoughts on Inauguration

2009-01-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

Like many people across the country, and probably world, I watched the inauguration of Barack Obama this morning. I was impressed by how many people were there in D.C. just to watch the thing on big screen monitors. It seemed like they had so much patriotism and hope for this country. I only hope that these feelings last a long time and that they weren't merely a show. I should probably watch the speech over again because the internet was being very stubborn and I missed about half of it. So I will try to comment on that later. But I did want to make one more comment about Bush. I still like him. I think he's a great guy. The whole time I saw him today on TV he was smiling, asking people how they were doing, and just being friendly. I particularly liked how he was giving high fives to the security guards lining the path he walked on. Despite what anyone may say, I feel that he did what he thought best for the country always. This is the same thing that president Obama is going to do. And I'm sure that most persidents have tried to do the same thing. But I was amazed at how the crowd erupted into a "No More Bush" cheer at the inauguration when he was introduced. Two thumbs down for them. He gives his entire life, doing his best for the country for 8 years, and that's the thanks he gets. I for one am glad he was president. Viva Bush.

Book Review: Romeo & Juliet

2009-01-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

So, because of some conflicts between seminary and advanced english my freshman year in high school, somehow I had never read Romeo and Juliet before. I think that we might have watched it in english class or something. This Christmas break Shanna was cleaning out her stuff at her house, and she threw the book out on the table. It was short so I decided to read it in my free time. It was really short and I enjoy reading straight dialogue.

I suppose that I enjoyed the book. I just read straight through without stopping to look up what certain things meant, so I didn't understand everything, but I caught the main story line. I guess it's worth reading at least once just because it's such a classic. But I only rate it a 1 out of 3.

Trip to Target

2008-12-07T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went on a trip to Target with Shanna to buy some stuff, I don't remember what. But while I was there, I made some observations that I have thought about quite a bit since then.

Observation 1.
Target carries golf equipment. All sorts of stuff. Putters, drivers, towels, bags, etc. Target carries frisbee equipment. Mainly just frisbees. However, Target does not carry frisbee golf equipment. This is in my opinion a major oversight on their behalf. It's kind of like carrying black cookies, and carrying white frosting, but not carrying oreos. Kind of like that.... So holiday shoppers, if you're looking to give the gift of a 175 gram driver disk to that special someone this Christmas, you won't find it at Target.

Observation 2.
Whoever has the job of building miniature tents to put on display at stores has it going on! Can you imagine your boss coming in to you and saying, "Hey Jack, we're going to need this tent, but about 20 times smaller." He spends all day sewing mini tents. He probably burns the midnight oil sewing extras that he can sell on the side to the Borrowers and other holiday shoppers looking for the Barbie Let's Camp collection that just sold out. Now I've realized that these miniature models have run over to sleeping bags as well. Seriously, I'll bet they could sell them for Barbie...

Observation 3.
For some reason, people take their kids Christmas shopping with them. Not only does it spoil the surprise of Christmas Day, but it clogs the aisles with those extra long look like a race car style shopping carts. A single one of those can block the entire aisle. Then you have kids hanging out the sides, grabbing toys, and causing trouble. You can always tell that the parents are fed up with it all.

Observation 4.
I really want a large hi-def flat screen tv with a blu-ray dvd player. Movies are really cool looking on those. It's like real people inside of your tv.

CO Close Call

2008-11-04T19:45:00.001-07:00

Had a scary experience today. I was working downstairs in the PARACad lab today with some other people when we heard a siren-type noise. It sounded like a police car but inside the Clyde Building. I looked at the person next to me and said, "I wonder what that was...". She later left for a class and returned about 2 hours later.

When she got back she told me what had happened. This is how I heard it. I don't know for sure if it is true or not. She said that there is a lab in the Clyde basement that has Carbon Monoxide tanks that exploded. The alarm was the carbon monoxide alarm. Apparently, the people from that lab evacuated everybody from the basement,.....except for us. I mean, what's the deal? If you're going to evacuate the basement,...evacuate the whole basement. In the mean time, I was studying and I got a huge headache and felt really drowsy. Luckily I'm ok. If I had died, nobody would have heard my story.

Next Week's Police Beat

2008-11-04T19:26:00.000-07:00

At nine o'clock AM on Tuesday Nov. 4th, police were called to investigate reported gun shots behind the Clyde Building. Cautiously, two patrol cars investigated the situation. As they poked their car nose around the corner, they saw nothing but a group of students huddled in a circle. Slowly they approached using all of their investigative skills. As they drew close to the group, the students looked up and laughed. The huddle parted to reveal a formula one race car. It was found that the "gunshots" were actually caused by the student built race car backfiring repeatedly. The officers told the students to try to get the engine timing problems worked out.

Don't be surprised if you see this in the Police Beat next week. It happened to us today. It was really funny. The officers were being so cautious. Then they were really relieved to see it was just us. Eventually a ME faculty member told us that we had to stop the engine because there were too many people around without earplugs even though there was a whole cubby full of earplugs in the facility. He said not to run it again until we had the problems worked out. The only thing is, we have to run it to iron out the problems.

Well, the car is running now anyway.

It's time...

2008-10-21T13:33:00.001-06:00

Recently, I have read, heard and watched all about the headlines following Proposition 8 in California and a similar define marriage amendment in Arizona. I didn't think that I had anything to add to the debate. I still don't think that I have anything to add. I guess it's time for me to say what I have to say. It's not much, but it came to my mind while I was reading the scriptures, so that's why I decided to share.

First of all, it's such a blessing to be raised in the LDS church and have been taught about families and gospel principles from my youth. I find it an enormous blessing also to be able to attend BYU with its large support and sponsorship from the church. I hear stories about schools in Massachusetts or wherever about teachers teaching the little children about gay marriage. I hear stories about how protests by good people against these schools have no effect because of certain laws or societal values. I'm just glad that no matter what, my school, my home, and my church will never teach that. My children will know the truth. I read an article today about recall elections at some predominately liberal school in California because 9 out of 15 members of the school's student association support proposition 8. I can't really even imagine what it would be like to go to school with people who can't even stand to have someone stand up for the institution of marriage. That story blew my mind.

Anyway, I guess that's all that I really have to say. But just the thought that someday when I have children going to school, no matter what they are taught there, God's truth will still be taught at home and church brings me comfort. So thanks to all who have done so much more than me to properly define marriage as between a man and a woman. Keep doing as much good as you can, then sit back and rely on God's promises.

Book Review: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids

2008-08-17T16:50:00.000-06:00

This book is a biography of Jon Finkel, a professional gambler who has appeared in the World Series of Poker who got his card playing start from the game Magic: The Gathering. I found the book very interesting because it not only talks about Finkel, but about the actual games (Magic, Blackjack, Poker, etc.) and the hundreds and thousands of kids who were influenced by them; especially Magic. The author clearly depicted the culture of the Magic tournaments as well as the type of people who were drawn to it (generally smart nerdy kids who dont have the ability to excell athletically). I guess this was interesting to me because I played Magic for a while with some of my friends, so I knew a little bit about it already. Even though I don't gamble, I enjoyed reading about how Finkel and his team of card counters and big players took casinos for tens of thousands of dollars in a single night and then wok eup the next evening to do it again. If you enjoyed the game Magic or the movie 21 at all, this book would be an interesting read for you also. I give it a rating of 1.5 out of 3.

A Few Pearls of Wisdom

2008-07-25T17:16:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm only 23 years old (almost 24) but I feel like I still have a few nougat filled morsels of wisdom that I can pass on to a lot of people. Enjoy...

1. Rules are usually rules for a good reason and yes, they do apply to you. - A lot of times, people think that rules somehow don't apply to them. I see this all the time at work. People carelessly take a Jamba Juice into the theaters even though it's posted in 3 inch letters not to. This almost always results in a large carpet cleaning job. They blatantly cross caution tape and wet wax signs in order to tromp through the hallway, leaving their size 9's imprinted in the otherwise glassy floor wax. But I guess the most blatant abuse of a rule was witnessed by me this morning on my way to work. Imagine my surprise when I looked up at Y Mountain in the early twilight to find it on fire! What happened was no mystery to me. Obviously, some geek decided to light fireworks on the Y in honor of Pioneer Day and shot a roman candle into a dry tinder-ized bush. The fire spread from the bottom right corner of the Y to cover about 1/8th of the mountain face. Here's a tip... Next time, when the firework stand says don't shoot off fireworks on the mountain... DON'T DO IT!!

2. Global Warming is real. - If you don't believe me on this one, go ride your bike behind a bus for 15 seconds.

3. If you see a movie on the opening night, DON'T talk about it except the following subjects: who acts in it, if you liked it or not, if it was scary, the amazing graphics, and if you would see it again at full price. Nobody wants to know how so-and-so kills who's-it. They don't want to know what amazing trick the protagonist does on a unicycle to save the damsel from the mutant cheese blob. Just keep it to yourself. There are great things called journals and tape recorders that would be glad to listen to you. But seriously..... I had the whole beginning of Batman: The Dark Knight ruined for me at work this past week by one kid who's seen it twice already. Show a little respect.

4. If you don't know how to do something, ask. - There's a kid who really has this one down at work. Yesterday, he was asked to sweep the floor. He said ok, but then asked, "After I sweep it, what do I do with the stuff I sweep up?" I guess he's never used a dustpan before... Now, he may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he figures out what he needs to do and then he does it.

Most who read this blog have probably already mastered these traits. But I know that you know people who haven't, so spread the word.

Fundamental(ist) Difference

2008-07-21T21:01:00.000-06:00

So I've read in the news lately that just as the LDS church has put out statements to establish the difference between the LDS church and the FLDS church, the FLDS church has also put out statements to emphasize the similarities of the two denominations. My feelings on this topic are mixed. While I know that they claim to believe the Book of Mormon and modern revelation and such, it bugs me because obviously if they had believed those things they would have understood the path by which revelation comes (that being through the Prophet, quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Stake Presidents, etc.) and believed that the Lord works through his Twelve Apostles and their breakaway sect wouldn't even exist.
I don't really get it. They disagree with the church leaders and apostatize. They determine the will of the Lord for themselves and create their own prophet. Then they go back and say, "Hey look, we've got so much in common with these people who we left." I guess all I know is that the Lord knows all things and will guide us where we ought to be. He will never lead us astray. If we follow we're blessed. If not, then we're on dangerous ground.

Book Review: Positively False

2008-07-19T18:04:00.000-06:00

This is the book written by Floyd Landis stripped 2006 Tour de France winner. The subtitle of the book is "The real story of how I won the Tour de France". The first half of the book is a general biography showing how he got into pro cycling. The second is about the Tour doping accusations. Starting out the book, I knew that it would be all about how the claims were preposterous. The events are laid out in chronological order and are very detailed. I sometimes wonder how authors can remember word for word what was said to them or by them, but that's getting off topic. I really enjoyed the storytelling.

The book really takes off after the Tour when he is accused of doping. I'll come right out and say it,... I believe that Landis should not have lost his title. I'm not saying that I'm positive that he didn't dope, but his team of supporters found mistake after mistake in the testing and procedures. The arguments made by him and his defense team are very viable and after reading I feel like the test was botched beyond a reasonable doubt and that his result should not have been deemed positive. There are a few main points which are explained in detail throughout the book and in pointing these out, Landis questions both the procedures, desires, and accuracy of WADA and the USADA, the world and united states anti-doping agencies.

It's a great read and leaves you with both the evidence and defense for you to make up your mind. Again I give a 3/3. (Maybe because I find the subject matter so interesting)

First Crash

2008-07-11T18:06:00.001-06:00

Well, there is a first for everything, and today is the first time that I have crashed on my new bike. I'm actually kind of embarrassed by it too. You see, I'd like to say that I was soaring down a steep road when a car pulled out in front of me. I'd like to say that it was either bail on the side of the road or eat a big fat delivery truck tail pipe...But I can't. All I can say is that my stupid pedal clips were strapped on too tight.

I was out on a ride around and through BYU campus when I decided that I had better be prepared for my big bike trek tomorrow to Saratoga Springs, 25 miles each way. So I pulled off the road next to Outdoors Unlimited to pick up some spare tubes and a water bottle. As I stopped my bike on the sidewalk, I pulled my right foot out of the pedal strap and began shifting my weight to my left side. Simultaneously, I pulled my left foot out of my pedal strap and planted my foot firmly on the ground. I noticed something was wring when my weight continued to shift further and further to the left. Alas, I hadn't pulled my foot out of the pedal clasp. By then I knew I was going down, but in the 2 seconds or so before I hit, I tried unsuccessfully about 50 more times to pull my foot out. I hit the cement, foot still firmly attached to the pedal. I reached down, loosened the strap and pulled it out.

I could tell immediately that I wasn't hurt bad. I basically fell straight over on my side from a complete stop. I began to do a little self examination. Head,...check. Shoulder,...check. Wrist,...ouch! My wrist was really sore. I figured that it was just an impact injury that would go away in a few minutes. In the meantime, I went inside to transact my business. On my way out, I glanced down my leg which was covered in black grease and oil. I noticed a weird red pattern. It took me a while, but I figured out that my front two chainrings had cut my leg up pretty good. Luckily they weren't bleeding a lot. As I mounted my bike, I realized that I couldn't put any pressure on my wrist or squeeze without pain. I continued on my ride trying to decide whether to finish early or go the whole route. I was dead set on ending early, but when I got to my turn, I decided I had recovered enough to finish the whole thing. I hope that you enjoy the cool design that my chainrings left in my leg. I know I will for a few weeks...

Great Start, But Still Depressing,...Sort Of

2008-07-05T17:50:00.001-06:00

Well, it's been 5 days now in the 300 mile challenge and as of right now, I have ridden 77.7 miles. That leaves me with 222.3 miles to go. Shanna and I rode up to Bridal Veil Falls on the Fourth of July, which was such a nice ride that I wanted to do it again. So I did it again today. The ride is very flat (except for the portion right next to Wymount which is very steep) and can go fairly quickly. The ride is 19.7 miles long, which added about 40 miles to my total in just 2 days. If I ever fall behind in my goal, this is a ride that I can catch up with. It is not difficult at all to do daily.

The only depressing part of my start this month is that today the Tour de France started. That's not depressing in and of itself, I actually am excited to follow the action this year. The depressing part is that today's stage was 197.5 kilometers long. That is equal to around 123 miles. So, while I've been working on my goal for 5 days now, the riders in the tour rode farther than me in one day. Not even a day. In 4 hours. Today I rode the 20 mile trail in just over an hour. That means that if I had ridden it four times for a total of just under 80 miles, the other tour riders would still be 40 miles past me. I guess it's not so much depressing as amazing how fast tour riders really are. And their Stage 1 ride involved climbing up mountains too....

ASICS' 300 Mile Challenge

2008-07-01T20:16:00.000-06:00

18.16 down, 281.84 to go.

That's right, only 282 miles until I finish my race. I have entered the ASICS' 300 mile challenge. "What is that?" I hear you ask... Well it is exactly what it sounds like. Basically ASICS is sponsoring a contest through www.mapmyrun.com that encourages people to get in shape. There are three challenges. 1. The cycle 300 miles in a month challenge, 2. The run 100 miles in a month challenge, 3. The walk a marathon in a month challenge. I decided to try my luck with challenge number 1. I'm pretty excited about it too since I have a new bike that is pretty lightweight and fast. It's by far the best bike that I have ever owned and I want to make it worth my money. Basically, if I complete this challenge, my bike will have cost less that 1 dollar per mile ridden on it. (The website keeps track of stuff like that)

Anyways, seeing as my commute to and from work every morning is about 1.8 miles total, if you round that to 2 miles and multiply by 5 days a week and 4 weeks a month, that comes to a total of 40 miles, leaving 260 to be ridden by me to complete the challenge. I think that I can do it. I've been reading the Lance Armstrong book which really got me interested in cycling as a sport. Not that I'm going to go out and try to become a professional cyclist or anything, but I will do more of it. Now I'm reading about Floyd Landis, the Tour de France champion who had his title stripped from him for doping allegations which he adamantly denies. It's pretty good. Look for a review of it when I finish.

Check back on the blog for updates on how far I've ridden this month. Ill try to post regularly so you can keep up on my riding. (Not that you would even want to) It's like following the Tour de France, only I will take a month and not three weeks, and I'm way slower than them, and my rides are easier, and there is only one rider, and it's not a race....I think you get the point.

Book Review: It's Not About the Bike

2008-06-29T20:59:00.000-06:00

This book is an autobiography written by Lance Armstrong (winner of the Tour de France 7 consecutive times) and it has the subtitle "My journey back to life". The book details Armstrong's childhood and early years as a professional cyclist, his battle with cancer, and his first Tour de France victory. The book has a very strong message and is very inspirational. In describing what he went through he illustrates that we all have our challenges and that we can overcome them if we put our mind to it. I was pretty amazed by the description of his cancer treatment. Before reading, I really didn't know what chemotherapy was. I thought that it was where they shoot you with radiation... I think that now, I can sympathize a little bit more with cancer patients and survivors. Another thing that I really enjoyed was the description of his actual Tour de France win as well as other races. He seems to remember them very vividly and I was sucked into the action. The book is also very good at informing the reader about the sport of cycling.(Traditions, rules, vocabulary, strategy, and many other aspects of cycling) I give it a rating of 3/3 and recommend it to everyone. The only downer is that he talks his wife up a lot throughout the book but ended up leaving her sometime after its publication.

Book Review: Shadow of the Giant

2008-05-31T13:44:00.001-06:00

Shadow of the Giant is the final book in the Shadow Series by Orson Scott Card, although there is talk of another book being published in the future. I felt that it did a very good job of tying up the loose ends while continuing to hold my attention. New events kept unfolding throughout the entire book although I could see everything heading towards the finale. Like in all of his books, Card excellently relates the reader to the feelings and emotion of the characters, especially in the conclusion of this story. I've never cried while reading a book before, but this one probably brought me the closest. Not in a mushy or cheesy way though.

The story was very interesting as were all of the others in the series. While it is the final book in the series, the author left many things unfinished which I presume will be tied up in the forthcoming book Shadow in Flight. He left the hero's future as well as that of a newborn baby being raised by an enemy to the imagination of the reader for now at least. It's a very good read that sparks personal thought on government, war, and families. I give the book a 3 on a scale of 3.

Guessing Contest Prizes

2008-05-28T19:18:00.001-06:00

I recently submitted a prediction of where I thought that my cousin, Bryan Gillespie, was going to get called to on his mission. I guessed Italy, and I was right. It wasn't the correct mission, but since nobody else guessed the correct mission either, I won by default with somebody else. Congratulations to Bryan, by the way.

Today as I returned from a long day in the salt mines, I checked the mail and there sat a large shoebox addressed to me. Promptly, I opened it and discovered that contained therein were a few prizes from the guessing game. Following, you will find a list detailing each item that I received:

1. A small Italian flag. Good old green, white, and red...Wasn't there a sub sandwich commercial about how those three colors make you hungry?....I don't remember what food chain it was though...

2. A box of Spaghetti. How did Aunt Yvonne know that Shanna and I were out of food? I'm still trying to figure that one out... And it was the good stuff too. It actually came in a box!! Wow!

3. A fork. Now, you may think, "A fork, huh? cool." But this is no ordinary fork. It's a spaghetti fork, which spins the spaghetti all up for me using an electric motor which is powered by two AAA batteries. So you all can see just how cool it actually is, here are a few videos of the fork in action...

Thank you Uncle Paul and Aunt Yvonne for the lovely prizes. And thank you Bryan, for getting called to Italy. That's awesome. I hope that you have a fun two years or so eating spaghetti with motorized forks. When you get home, you will be able to teach me a thing or two about how to correctly flip the switch in mid bite. (I had some trouble with the food falling off of the fork)

Random

2008-05-28T18:35:00.000-06:00

JASON BRAAAAUUN!!!!

Book Review: Shadow Puppets

2008-05-25T14:19:00.000-06:00

This book is the third in Orson Scott Card's Shadow Series which is a parallel series to the Ender's Game Series. The Shadow Series follows the events playing out on earth following the destruction of an alien civilization by a group of children trained up to be the greatest military minds alive. The main character of the series is Bean, a boy who's genes were illegally altered as an embryo resulting in unlimited brain growth. Along with this added brain power he also continues to grow physically.

This book continues the story of Bean after he has rescued other battle school graduates and friends from the evil influence of Achilles. However, with Achilles still in the world, Bean and his friend Petra are not safe. Shadow Puppets follows Bean and Petra as they try to find a way to get rid of Achilles, who has risen in power over China and many other nations. Many other battle school graduates also rise to the top of their home countries as tensions rise and war appears imminent. At the same time, Peter Wiggin, the Hegemon of the World and brother to the famous Ender Wiggin, seeks to use Achilles to accomplish his own purpose of uniting the world under a single governing body, the Hegemony.

Shadow Puppets definitely lived up to my expectations and kept my attention from start to finish. Although the pages were more commentary and dialog than actual action, you would think the story would be boring. The strategy discussed and story taking place, while being very detailed and deep, seemed so simple and easy to comprehend that I still felt very involved as a reader. I enjoyed reading pages on strategy and plans and then being filled in on how the plans worked with only a paragraph or a few sentences in the next chapter.

Bean is still as interesting as can be as he struggles to cope with his impending death and feelings for Petra. It is also interesting to see how Petra can manipulate him due to his admiration and love for her. Eventually this manipulation leads to one of the main story lines of the book.

One letdown was that I thought that Shadow Puppets was the last book in the series, when in fact it is the next to last book. As the story began to wind down, I realized that there were just too many loose ends to tie up in 30 pages or so. That kind of bummed me out. It's actually downright annoying when you expect something to finish and then it turns out that the story goes on. Kind of like when church is supposed to be over, but that one old guy in the ward is rambling on about something totally unrelated to the lesson and he just won't let up either because he doesn't know what time it is or he doesn't care what time it is. But you want to go home to catch the second half of the Suns game...

Overall, I highly recommend this book as well as the whole Ender and Bean series to anyone who enjoys reading but sometimes gets bogged down in the middle of a long book. The books are all about 300 pages and very easy reads. They are very entertaining. Anyone who enjoyed Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow will thoroughly enjoy this book as well.

Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008-05-24T20:36:00.001-06:00

Okay, so I was able to see the new Indiana Jones movie this week and I thought I would write a review on it. I'll try not to spoil any of the plot for those of you who haven't seen it. No guarantees though, so read at your own risk. Don't get mad if I let something slip.

First of all, I would like to say that I really enjoyed the movie. It is chalk full of classic Indiana Jones scenes and one liners. Of course Harrison Ford is older in the movie, but there is still a good selection of fight/action scenes. The movie also tied into some of the past movies very simply and it was fun to find little parts in the screenplay that were taken from one of the previous three movies or to see an object or character from an old movie. Again Jones is pitted against one of the world's most feared armies, this time it's the KGB or Russian Army.

Of all the movies, as you would expect, this one implemented the most computer animated effects. I found this both enhancing and distracting. I felt like the explosions, special effects, etc. were all very good using the computer animation, but I also thought they went a little bit overboard with it animating badgers, monkeys, and even some stunts which looked fake and distracted from or had no purpose in the story. The ants is one exception though. I thought that the ant scene was great, aside from the one that got squished...

The Crystal Skull also seemed to have many scenes which were a bit too unrealistic. I know that it's Indiana Jones and he does unrealistic things in all of his movies, but usually there aren't so many things in one movie. I'm sorry, but I don't think that even Indiana could survive a nuclear bomb explosion by crawling into a refrigerator...Although I had expected him to maneuver out of a few sticky situations (which he did) I didn't expect him to have to escape this many times while each time it seemed to get stickier.

Finally, of all the ancient artifacts that Indiana Jones has found, this movie has to be the weirdest. Every previous movie finds Jones seeking after some relic with supposed and real supernatural powers. The ark, grail, and stones were great and all seem a lot less supernatural after watching this movie. The story for the movie was way out there. I immensely enjoyed the searching for the treasure and the good guy bad guy story. I didn't enjoy how the story ended. The ending is just weird. I can't think of any other way to explain it. Again the computer graphics add to the oddity of the final scenes. I wish that they could have figured out something else that the skulls could have done. I was glad to see the bad lady get her eyeballs burned out (eerily similar to the man turning old in The Last Crusade and the man melting in Raiders of the Lost Ark) but aside from that, it was just weird. Those of you who have seen it can identify with me, right?

So, in summary, I recommend the movie for any Indiana Jones fans. Like I said before, I enjoyed the movie and wouldn't be disappointed if I spent money to see it (even 8 bones for a normal theater). And while I felt that the ending was weird, it was a classic Indiana Jones story with good action sequences and great acting. Very funny. Very entertaining. But weird.
Did I mention that Shia LaBeouf was great in the movie?,...well he was.

Flossing Tips for the Kiddies

2008-05-11T21:32:00.000-06:00

Ok all you kiddies...Here's an unsubstantiated fact that I heard at work this week. This one comes form my boss Lynn. Apparently, humans live 3 years longer on average if they floss their teeth daily. I guess this means that while I will live to a ripe age of 75, Shanna will last until she's 83. I could floss daily and increase my expectancy to 78, but is three years really worth all of the time put into flossing?...3 minutes daily for my life. If I floss every day of my life for 50 years from today that's like 54750 minutes, 912.5 hours, 38 days, devoted to just flossing my teeth. Maybe I'll just put in a few all nighters and get those 38 days out of the way early on so I don't have to worry about it anymore.
Now, I'm not saying this "flossing fact" isn't true, I'm just saying that I don't think I believe it...unless you can show me some proof. But for now, I'm still a weekly flosser.

Ding and Dang....

2008-05-04T20:03:00.001-06:00

Recently, Shanna and I went camping near Goblin Valley State Park in the Utah desert. Goblin Valley itself was very impressive and interesting. I can't say that I've seen anything like it before. There are so many goblins, it's hard to believe that it was all formed naturally. And actually, in my thinking, it wasn't all nature. There had to be some divine artist behind this beautiful valley. Very neat. Aside from Goblin Valley though, we did a lot of hiking in some canyons in the area. This was my favorite part of the trip.

Despite staying overnight only Thursday night, we hiked 3 canyons: Crack Canyon and Ding and Dang Canyons. Ding and Dang form a loop that connects two larger washes and features extremely narrow portions as well as impressive vertical walls on both sides. Especially in Dang Canyon(the canyon we descended through), there were a few very high vertical drops which we had to navigate. One or two were a little bit creepy, but all of them were really fun and exciting to climb down.

Crack Canyon was also mucho fantastico. While the climbing and hiking wasn't as challenging as Ding and Dang, there were a lot of fun portions. The best part of the hike was the huge crack towards the end of the canyon. Very narrow, it rises the entire height of the canyon walls. I would guess that it was only about 3-4 feet wide. Once inside of it, we could shimmy up and down pretty much at will. About 15 feet up (I would guess, because I didn't go that high) the walls close in and get very narrow. The cool thing was that you could look straight up and see the sky outside.

At night, we camped in a wash which is generaly not a smart idea. Another camper decided to point out the obvious to us as he was passing. We thought "duh!" but since the sky was clear and chance of rain was nil, we took our chances. We had some delicious boiled hot dogs for dinner and breakfast burritos boiled in ziplock bags for breakfast. The rest of the trip we ate granola bars and my personal favorite, Finding Nemo fruit snacks.

All of the pictures from the trip are located on my brother in law's(Bruce's) picture album website at: http://picasaweb.google.com/bruckie There are four albums. Each begins with "San Rafael Swell" and were posted on April 24th or 25th. Enjoy glancing through them.

Ticket to Ride

2008-05-01T21:58:00.000-06:00

If you haven't played the board game Ticket to Ride, you're missing out. I played it for the first time tonight and realized how fun it is. A game of railroad construction, Ticket to Ride pits you against the other players to build routes between specific destinations. With only certain rails available to build on, you must race the other players to place your colored railroad cars in those designated positions before somebody else does. While it's a game requiring planning, board awareness, and strategy it's play is actually very simple and easy to pick up on. A great game for small groups even if some haven't played before. Games will become intense with experienced players and will bring out the worst in everyone. You may often find yourself building in order to "block" someone's route and cause a detour rather than complete your routes. The game play seems similar to Settler's of Catan only much simpler and less time consuming. I'd buy it myself but Amazon.com has just confirmed my suspicion that the cost is over 30 dollars($35) and after all of those Settlers of Catan expansion packs, I don't have much(any) money left in my game budget...

College Tourney Day 1

2008-03-21T10:18:00.001-06:00

Don't expect a daily update...

I'm glad to see that I did fairly well with my bracket choices on the first day of the NCAA Tournament. I managed to select each winner correctly, except for 1. I had to go with school pride and choose BYU over Texas A&M. You may not believe me, but I really thought in my mind that BYU would lose because they do every year...

Although I did fill out a bracket and checked it this morning, I'm not a huge March Madness fan. Of course it's cool to be able to watch over 60 basketball games in a few weeks, but as mentioned on abigjuicyvan.blogspot.com college players lack the skill to make the games truly exciting.

I think that I like March Madness for a different reason than anyone else. I like it because I can sit back and watch brick after brick and say, "I can do that. I do that all of the time." I feel like a great basketball player after watching shabby play for 2 hours.

Good rule of thumb. If you want to see good basketball (like I do) , watch the pros. If you want to feel good about yourself, join in on the madness....(with me).

2008-03-19T16:05:00.000-06:00

Hey Everybody,

Here is a video that my lab group made last week. It's of a water balloon popping. We had to film at 12,000 frames per second to get this shot. It's pretty amazing how the balloon just gets pulled off from around the water. The water kind of sticks to the rubber too. It's just a cool video. Enjoy!

Bowling Class Champions

2008-02-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

It was almost as exciting as winning the summer intramural soccer tournament. This past Thursday, February 21, my bowling team won the class championship. We should have been the outright champions without having today's match, but last time we played team 3, they used a little bit or trickery to foil us. They split their team up and bowled on two separate lanes in order to get more games in to pad their score with their highest 3 scores. Their plan worked and they squeaked out a victory in our first meeting. Not on Thursday, though.

Since we had lost one match earlier in the year, to team 3 as mentioned above, we were pitted against them again in the championship game. Their tactics were still the same and they split up and started to bowl. This time however, we made note of each game they bowled in order to ensure they took a proper average. They didn't have a stellar first or second game, but we did pretty well. We were well on our way to beating them handily when my teammate made a suggestion to me that would change the whole day. After noticing that I frequently start out games with three strikes, Bret Anderson told me to just think of a game as 3 frames long, and to bowl 4 games of 3 frames each. I thought this was funny and laughed, but I decided to try it out. So, at the start of the next game, I bowled a turkey (Strike, Strike, Strike). 3 frames down, time for a new game. I next bowled a spare followed by two strikes. Keeping with the suggestion, I started my third game (frames 7-9) with a strike!, then a Strike!, and a STRIKE!!! I couldn't keep in the mindset anymore. I had bowled 8 strikes in 9 frames with a spare in the other! I couldn't believe it! With each strike, my heart started beating faster and my hand got shakier. I tried to stay calm and the balls just kept gliding right into the pocket, sending the pins into a frenzy, taking no prisoners, and leaving none standing. But, like I said, my mind became weak. In the tenth frame, my hand just wouldn't throw the ball straight anymore. The ball glided to the right and took out 3 pins. Luckily, due to a fortuitous pin bounce, I picked up the spare and got to my bonus frame. I picked up a strike in the last frame to secure my score. Two hundred fifty-two! It was pretty sweet. That is the best score that I have ever bowled or will ever bowl in my entire life. I got a bunch of high-fives and jumped around a little bit (you know,...you've gotta do something when you bowl a 252...). I'm pretty excited to get my name on the wall of the bowling alley for a while too. I'll try to get a picture of it so that all of you out there believe my story.

What's even more better than that, is that the other team didn't have as good of a game as when we had first played them and team 3 was defeated. Team 2 became the victors and champions of the Beginning Bowling class. I know, it's a pretty big honor to be the best of the beginners. Props to my teammates (Scott Selin, aka. Straight Cash Homey and Bret Anderson, aka. Hank) who each outplayed all of the members of team 3 in our finals match. And thanks to them for giving me some of their good luck in that third game....I couldn't have done it without you guys. So, I guess that's that. We are the champions, and what do we get as our prize?... We get to bowl cosmic style next Tuesday in our last class. Sweet!

Evan (Bowling Name: Eban Sr.)