dj whitebread
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Last Day in San Diego
So after the conference ended, we decided to go get some lunch and see some stuff. Unfortunately, we had no car. So we took a taxi down to the beach and went from there. After much walking we found a little cafe to eat at, and the food was tasty.
We then decided to walk north and come around the bay back to the hotel to see more sights. We ended up finding our way down to the hike and bike trail and took that back to the hotel. It was nice to see the water. We did actually see the Pacific as well.
I'm looking forward to heading back home and helping with the Christmas decorations. I know Carrie got some new lights for the tree. It will also be nice to spend some time in Austin before we head back to BR for the holidays.
Labels: OSDI
11:43 PM |
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
More OSDI
Saw several good talks today. Overall it has been a decent conference. We have half a day of talks tomorrow.
I'm not sure what we're going to do tomorrow after Harry's talk. Hopefully we may get out to see a little more of San Diego.
So it's apparently snowing in Austin right now. Crazy. It got up to 76 today there... before the cold front hit. Weird.
I heard from the repair people that the edges for the counter tops showed up. So that's good. We should have everything completely done by Friday at the latest. Awesome.
Labels: home improvement, OSDI
11:59 PM |
Monday, December 08, 2008
WiP Given
I gave my short talk today. Everybody I've talked to seems to have enjoyed it. We'll see.
We had the conference reception tonight. It turns out the conference rented out Dave and Buster's and gave us all game cards with a lot of credits on them. It was a fun time.
With the WiP out of the way, I do feel much more relaxed.
We had a good time today, I'm hoping the rest of the conference will go as well.
Labels: OSDI
11:29 AM |
Sunday, December 07, 2008
San Diego
Allen and I made it to San Diego today no problem. Harry's flight came in shortly after ours, and we took a taxi to the hotel. Hotel isn't really the right word... it's not one big building. Rather, it's composed of many little buildings of rooms. We, unfortunately, don't have a bay room.
Had some tasty teriyaki for supper. I'm giving my short talk tomorrow afternoon. I hope somebody will find it interesting.
It's amazing how much I feel the two hour time change. I felt equally tired when I went to the Bay Area in November.
Oh well, back to the slides.
10:24 PM |
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Well...
...those games didn't quite work out as I had planned. I mean, seriously... Mizzou really has no defense. Ugh. The SEC game was good, at least. I guess I was glad to see Florida win.
Tomorrow I head out to San Diego for OSDI. Should be interesting. I'm giving a short 5 min. talk on Monday afternoon. Hope to talk to some people and do some networking.
We put the Christmas tree up tonight. The lights we've used for several years just weren't getting it done this year (literally, they were barely functional). When I get back we're going to go get some fresh ones.
Well, I need to finish up folding some laundry and then get to sleep. I'll post from San Diego!
Oh, I almost forgot. Congratulations to Lynn and Johann, the wedding was beautiful!
Labels: college football, OSDI
11:50 PM |
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Quick update
Tomorrow night is the deadline: 11 PM. Honestly, I really don't think this paper will go out. But the environment here is just good to work in. Lots of people, everybody thinking, everybody with this sort of group mentality of joy through suffering. I would rather work now and see how far I can get in the hopes of reducing the amount of time I have to work here by myself on an empty floor come the summer when I'm working on finishing my dissertation.
This little guy has been keeping me motivated. He's the desktop on my laptop.
I miss riding my bike. I haven't ridden since conference. I plan on going for a ride on Friday, and I should probably do a little swim. You know, with that whole triathlon thing on Saturday. Luckily, everything is short.
Okay, I'm going to get back to work. I would like to have some graphs come tomorrow night, even if the paper doesn't leave my computer.
Labels: OSDI, Rookie Triathlon
7:38 PM |
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Two Things
There are two things I would rather be doing this weekend that are both cycling related: the first is the Cheaha Challenge in Alabama and the second are the races around Houston this weekend. Alas, work must be done, and in all honesty, since there are so many of us here working, it isn't too bad. I just wish some of these other people were actually working on my paper, then it would be a lot more fun.
10:52 AM |
Friday, May 02, 2008
Alive
I am alive. Conference was a blast, even though I didn't necessarily do well. The rain during the crit really was horrifying; the infamous corner four became more infamous. But we brought the trophy back home with us to Austin. Two years in a row! Hook'em!
I'm working a lot, and will continue to do so until Thursday night. I'm hoping to squeeze in a some exercise here and there. I should probably swim once before the triathlon a week from tomorrow. Whoops.
I can still rock out to the latest Muse album.
I have been updating my Twitter feed decently frequently because it's fast and I don't feel the need to be as thorough in my commentary. Clicky.
Labels: Conference Champions, OSDI, twitter, Wichita Falls, work
11:04 PM |
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Empty
It's after noon on a Saturday with now less than three weeks to the OSDI deadline. And the sixth floor of ACES is empty. What the heck?
Labels: OSDI
12:35 PM |
Monday, April 14, 2008
MS 150 Report
It all started with a bus ride... a bus ride that had a stop in the middle for Applebees. The place that doesn't have a pasta dish on the menu without alfredo sauce. I know, pasta and tomato sauce is weird and fringe. Anyway, we left Applebee's, headed to the hotel, and got settled. A note here about our volunteer team: they were awesome. They got all of our bikes and stuff to Houston, to LaGrange and back to Austin. Absolutely amazing, we couldn't have done it without them.
The NI team had 111 riders this year. That's pretty huge. A big spurt of growth for the team, which is really awesome.
So back to the recap. Friday night wasn't a good night of sleep. I just wasn't sleeping well, and then a group of people decided to have a raging party outside of our room. But they would go away for a while. Then come back. Then go away, rinse and repeat. Since we were getting up at 5:15 AM, needless to say, I (nor anybody else in our room) didn't get much sleep.
Saturday morning we were able to start the ride from our parking lot since we were just a mile or two off the route. I knew there were a few guys on the team who were pretty determined to beat each other to LaGrange (the end of the first day). I stayed with one of them for a while, but this other guy from the team with a tri-bike jumped to the front at some point and ramped up the pace from a doable 23 to over 26. I at this point sat up and decided that I was going to wait for another group from NI to roll by and join them.
Luckily, that did happen. I got a nice group, and we rolled almost until lunch at the 50 mile mark together. Once the rollers started to show up you could tell that most people on the ride instantly were less comfortable. The wind was pretty strong for the first half, and most of it had been cross wind, but it was nothing compared to what would come later.
So after lunch I was by myself for a while as the group I ate with all got lost getting out of the lunch stop (it was sort of a mess). One NI guy who I was riding with earlier (Marshal, I believe) came up behind me and we rode together for a bit. Then I saw these four Canadians from BP Canada come by, and I had ridden with them earlier. And with them is a woman from NI (Carla) who I had also ridden with earlier. I jumped in with them, and this proved to be a good decision. Our little group of six stayed together for the last 30 or so miles of the ride, and proved to be invaluable as far as I was concerned.
We were trading pulls with the wind, actually attempting to deal with the cross wind as correctly as we could given the crowd, and generally having a good time and keeping the pace up in the process. We stopped at the last rest stop (mile 90) because we were all out of water. I knew the last 5 miles or so were going to finally be tail wind. So we just had 5 miles of bad wind left. Right before the turn into the good wind, we had a large down hill. I started coasting down it faster than one of the Canadians, and he started pedaling to catch me, and I was keeping ahead of him just tucking and coasting. Well, that annoyed him so he attacked. We caught him, and then he urged me to go for it again on the next down hill at which point, three of went for it down the hill, turned the corner and felt the tail wind hit our backs.
A note here: this was all in good fun. This wasn't a race, we were just entertaining ourselves to help the miles go by. Well the three of us were riding along leisurely enjoying the tail wind when Carla pops up from behind us. She had chased us down solo. She kind of just looked back at us and smiled. Well, right after this we headed up hill and the older Canadian just went nuts attacking up the hill. I had no desire to chase up hill at this point in the ride, but we all caught up and I took off down the next down hill and me and the older Canadian stayed together until the end just trading hard pulls. I really wanted to be done at this point, so I was perfectly okay hammering and enjoying the tail wind.
So an advantage of getting done much earlier on the first day than the first time I had done the MS 150 was the lack of a long line at the shower truck. I was able to drop off my bike, grab my clean clothes, and get a shower really quickly. Then I hung out and cheered as NIers came into the tent when they finished. I also had a massage. That was nice. Carrie made it in a little while later. Once it got dark, we all headed to sleep decently early. Even though it was cold, and I was in a sleeping bag, I actually slept really well. I think I was just exhausted.
On the subject of cold, it was in the 40s Sunday morning. I had not expected it to be this cold, and I had nothing for my legs. Even though the event started at 7, I didn't get out of the fairgrounds until 7:45. That was the coldest I've ever been on my bike; I just didn't have enough clothes on. But after 5 or 6 miles I warmed up and I never really felt overly cold again the rest of the day.
All in all, I felt good the second day, albeit a little tired. Before the parks, the wind wasn't much of an issue. In the parks it was non-existent as the giant pine trees block it. However, after the lunch stop in Bastrop, the wind was back. It was a headwind, though, so at least you could get some cover in a pace line. And that's what I did. I really had no shame on Sunday, basically getting into any group that I could. I was feeling somewhat lazy, so I was getting in groups that were going slower than I could have been going, but I didn't see anybody I knew all day, so I just decided to take it easy and enjoy the ride in. I eventually made it in to Austin, and relaxed at the NI tent with some food and enjoyed some sampling from the keg.
From a cycling perspective, this year's experience was superior to the my previous one. I felt people were less spastic on their bikes. I also felt much more confident on my bike, and felt a lot stronger. Even though my legs were tired at the end of the first day and during pretty much all of the second day, they were still doing what they needed to do. I remember rolling into Austin the first time I did it, and literally barely being able to turn my legs over coming up the hills on MLK. This year I was tired, but I just spun myself up the hills and it wasn't a big deal. It's interesting to do the same ride again and see the difference.
Of course, from the giving perspective, it's a great cause, and I was proud to be a part of it again. I would have no problem doing it again... the worst part of the whole thing is the camping out at the fair grounds. But I'm just a wimp in that regard. It's pretty awesome to see 12000 people ride their bikes that far to support the cause of wiping out MS once and for all.
On that note, I know I speak for both me and Carrie when I say thank you very much to all of you who donated to our MS150 accounts. If anybody would like to still give, we have another month to take donations, and all of them are greatly appreciated!
So it was a fun weekend. I am very proud of Carrie for completing her first century, and then doing another big ride the day after. This is by far the longest time she's spent on the bike, and to do it with that many other people on the road and all the other craziness is very impressive in my book. Yay for Carrie!
The only bad thing I want to point out about this weekend is that our DVR didn't record Paris-Roubaix. And Boonen won in a break by out sprinting them in the velodrome! Argh.
But now it's back to work. I dropped the bike off for a few repairs this morning. I hope to do a few rides this week, and some races this weekend. No more travel, however, until after the May 8th OSDI deadline. It will be nice to spend a few consecutive weeks in Austin and hopefully get lots of riding and lots of work in. I also need to start fitting in a little swimming and running here and there to get ready for my tri on May 10th.
I hope everybody's weeks are starting out well!
Labels: Carrie is awesome, cycling, MS150, OSDI, pro racing
4:53 PM |
Monday, March 17, 2008
Weekend recap
It was a very nice weekend.
Friday night we met up with Dot and Jerry for some Suzi's, and the rice was a nice dose of carbs to help take on the bike ride we were planning on Saturday morning.
We headed over to Johanna's house for the ride, and I ended up riding with Dan and his friend Carl. We got a nice metric century in. It had been a long time since I had done a ride like that. My legs felt tired at the end, but not dead. They were still giving me juice when I asked for it, even right at the end. It was pretty windy, and we had a headwind section after we took a convenience store break in Manor that was brutal. Overall I felt good; I think things are slowly but surely coming back.
After Carrie and Johanna finished up their ride Carrie and I rushed home, got cleaned up and headed off to the surprise destination for our anniversary celebration. Turns out, Carrie had booked us tickets for the "Vanishing Texas Rivers" boat tour, which was very interesting and quite beautiful. The weather was perfect for it. After the boat cruise, we headed over to the Horseshoe Bay resort where we had a room for the evening. Carrie had also made reservations at Cafe 909, a cozy little fine-dining place right in the middle of the classic little Marble Falls downtown.
The food was remarkable. We ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio from Flat Creek, one of the wineries we visited in the Fall (points for stocking hill-country wine) and he actually let us taste some before he opened a bottle for us since that year apparently came out different than your average Pinot Grigio. We both loved it, and told him we'd take it. (Points for knowing the wine you sell and having apparently personal relationship with the local vineyards... and this was just the waiter!) It was a very light flavor, but nicely fruity, not sweet, and amazingly drinkable. Neither of had had a proper lunch after riding, so when hey brought out the homemade bread, we tore through it. For starters, I ordered the asparagus soup that was topped with white asparagus slices, lump crab meet, heirloom tomato, and crème fraîche. Carrie had the seared tuna with citrus and mixed greens. Both were delicious. For our entrées I had a trout with brown-butter sauce with spinach and fingerling potatoes in a grain-mustard dressing and Carrie had the salmon. They were both delicious, and the bed of creamy, cheesy polenta under Carrie's salmon was quite tasty. The desserts were also good, a panna cotta with a rhubarb sauce and a chocolate torte with grapefruit sorbet, fresh citrus, and pink peppercorns.
Turns out this place has made its way onto several top-10 lists in Austin. Pretty good for a little place an hour away in Marble Falls! I would drive to Marble Falls to go back to this place in a heart beat.
Saturday we made a visit to the Longhorn caverns. That was a lot of fun, I hadn't been on a cave tour in many, many years. It's always amazing what nature can do. Then after a quick drive to the Buchanan dam, we headed back into Austin just in time to catch evening Palm Sunday mass.
It was a great weekend and I thank my wife for planning it all. She's very good at planning things of this nature. :-D
Looking forward, lots of work to get done this week. We are going to head up to Dallas for Easter to see family, so that is cool. We are bringing the bikes, as we both need to get in a ride Saturday morning. I pretty much need to ride every day this week as I doubt I'll get any done on Easter and I also took yesterday off. I'm really shooting for 5-6 days a week at least through the end of April. (The first 8 days of May are going to be insane with the OSDI deadline on May 8th.)
I have really regained my passion for riding my bike. I just love it again. Unfortunately, I think my drive train is about to fall apart. Though, I did find somebody who can fix my Circuits and deal with their stupid double-threaded spokes.
Okay, time to work. Happy St. Patrick's day!
Labels: anniversary, Cafe 909, Carrie is awesome, I love my bike, Marble Falls, OSDI, training, twin-threaded spokes
12:47 PM |
