dj whitebread
Friday, August 24, 2007
Friday friday friday
I've said it once and I'll say it again... if there is ever a movie made about me, I want the opening scene to be me walking around to Spoon's I Turn My Camera On. That is just such a freaking great song.
On the subject of Spoon I'm enjoying the new album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. It still hasn't surpassed Gimme Fiction in my mind though. Admittedly I don't have any good knowledge of Spoon's albums before that. One day I'll check them out.
So I've decided to try and submit a paper to a conference with a deadline of October 9th, so I plan on being pretty busy until then. This is my last weekend of playing WoW consistently for a while, and I hope to be able to work more riding in as I try to get back to getting to work early consistently.
The good news is that by not submitting to the conference with the deadline of November 15th, I will be free to go to Wurstfest! :)
Apparently classes start on Wednesday, which just means the masses of humanity will be back on campus and lines at lunch places will be long once again. Summer is so peaceful at UT, it's hard when that slips away.
But with the return of students comes the return of football season. Woot! We have season tickets, though I plan on only going to the Nebraska and Tech games towards the end of the season. The rest of the games will be hot and a waste of time. We are going to the LSU vs. Arkansas game in BR at Thanksgiving, however, and I'm very excited about that.
Everybody have a good weekend!
Labels: football, LSU, NSDI, UT, WoW, Wurstfest
3:00 PM |
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Wednesday already
This past weekend we all had a good time at Greg LaBorde's bachelor party. His friend Doug did a stellar job arranging the weekend, and the house we had on the lake was awesome. We rented a ski boat on Saturday and I actually got to ski, which always makes for a fun time.
After the paper was turned in, I quickly fell back into my 2am-10am sleep schedule that my body seems to so naturally go towards. While, that works well when I'm working until 2am as productivity goes, not so much when I'm going home at a normal time. I was able to get myself out of bed this morning at a decent time (I also went to bed earlier than 2), and hopefully I can keep this up, at least for a little while.
I watched the last two episodes of Heroes. Interesting.
Carrie and I then watched a movie called, "Goodbye, Lenin" on the recommendation of Greg Deist. I really enjoyed it. I am fascinated by the old Soviet Bloc, so it was definitely an interesting movie for me. It was funny, but in a sort of serious way. But it was never too heavy. I was a fan.
So I am having the hardest time motivating myself to ride my bike by myself right now. Maybe it is the heat. Riding with other people... tell me when to meet. Riding by myself, eh. I guess it is partly because I don't have any "targets" right now other than sucking less at the Thursday crits. I don't think I'm going to race AMLI. The entry fee is pretty high, and I'm sure everybody is going to be bringing their A game, which is way more A than mine. I will definitely, however, be down there in the evening to watch the Women's and Men's Pro Races. I think we are technically co-sponsoring it or something.
So we made our hotel and plane reservations for Hawaii. Aloha, indeed. We are flying direct from Houston to Honolulu. It will be a long flight, but it should be a very straightforward trip. I made need to look into some anti-anxiety medication. I mean, I'm definitely going to need some if I go to India.
The WoW front is going well, also. The group I play with is making a lot of progress towards our goal, and I'm getting my character better geared, which in turn makes me better at my role in the game. This all goes towards the part of the game that Carrie isn't a fan of... the part where it "doesn't end."
Alrighty... that's it for now.
Labels: AMLI, Hawaii, Heroes, work, WoW
9:14 AM |
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Goings on
The paper got off. The Lagniappe blog has more details.
Di Luca is continuing to keep the Giro under control. It has been some quality racing.
Been catching up on WoW. The game still rocks. The changes in the most recent patch were well done. Blizzard continues to impress me as a company that seems to actually listen to its customers.
Went for a ride yesterday. For being on my bike a little under two hours, and really not going hard at all, I should not have had an average heart rate of 154. The heat got me, and I was I think dehydrated before I even started. Luckily, we cut short the original planned ride. I didn't completely bonk myself out. Got a good bit of sleep last night, however. I'm going for another ride today, hopefully the results will be much better.
This of course implies that I'm not doing the crit tonight. I will gladly pay 10 dollars to get destroyed. However, I will only do it if I think I can improve and hang on longer. The lack of riding in the last few weeks, however, will not help that and going for a normal ride will be of much more benefit. I think next Tuesday I'm doing the Tuesday Nighter. It is about time for me to man up.
This weekend is Greg LaBorde's bachelor party at a lake house out on Lake Travis. Should be a good time.
Have the last two episodes of Heroes on the DVR. Also have the last two episodes of Studio 60. I'm glad to see it did in fact come back. Not sure if they renewed it for next season, though. Hopefully.
Oh well, hope everybody is doing fine.
Labels: Giro d'Italia, work, WoW
2:57 PM |
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Paper done
We got the paper submitted. That's good. We'll know about the status on May 1st.
So I'm trying to hit level 70 right now in WoW. This is the highest level you can be, and I'm just tired of not being there. I hit 69 last night, so it shouldn't be much longer.
I'm going to go for a ride today to test out a few things: 1) my shoulder, 2) my new shoes, and 3) my back. My shoulder feels a lot better, but it doesn't feel quite back to normal, and I have had a goofy upper back cramp on and off for the past few days. I got my shoes the other week, but didn't have time to try them out before Wichita Falls.
Our race is the weekend after Easter. We will be using the Thursday night crit course for our crit and Pace Bend for our road race... it should be a good weekend of racing. The race I missed on Sunday sounded pretty brutal as it got pretty warm and the gravel proved for interesting racing, as predicted. I wish I could have been there.
Oh well, I hope everybody is having a good week so far.
1:56 PM |
Monday, March 12, 2007
Time Change
Well, here we are. Daylight saving time is back. While I welcome the added light in the evening, it does always take a little while to get used to.
Congratulations to Carrie on her half-marathon yesterday. She improved her time from the AT&T Austin half-marathon a few weeks ago, and on a very hilly course for a run at that.
I drove her and her friend Merri Su down there to run the race. I brought my bike along. When they started (7:30am) it was still too dark to start riding, so I hung out, got some coffee, and sat in the parking lot for a little while. Finally, around 8:10 or so I got my bike put back together, put on my gear, and headed out. The marathon was on almost exactly the same loop as the Texas State road race from a few weeks back, so I was able to follow along that. I did one loop of the TX State race course and then one loop of the half-marathon course which gave me 25 miles with a little bit of climbing thrown in. However, I was just tired. My heart rate did not want to get up very high regardless of how much I hurt or pushed. It took a long time for legs to warm up as well. Pretty much all the riding I did last week involved me trying to go up hill as much as possible, so I think my legs were ready for a break. Plus, I got four hours of sleep because of the time change.
Spent the afternoon hanging out with Chad playing WoW at Jerry's house.
We had Mangia and Amy's last night. It was delicious. And most definitely a splurge for the week.
Two weeks until our next collegiate race. Of course, I have South by Southwest coming up this weekend, so that will put a little dent in the training. I am planning on heading up to Wichita Falls in two weeks well-rested and ready to go. I've already noticed that I feel stronger climbing, and I've lost a little weight as well, so I'm really excited about this race. The course is mostly flat with a few rollers, and I should be able to actually play a part.
I'm starting to really miss meat. I really find myself craving it now.
Also, I need to find a way to get live crawfish into Austin. I'm okay if it involves driving to Houston. I'm just curious to find out the details.
Labels: cycling, meat, SxSW, WoW
3:20 PM |
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Confusingly fast
That's how this week has progressed. It's already Thursday? What?
I was able to get some hill work in on Tuesday. That was good. However, my recovery ride plans for yesterday didn't happen, nor or is any riding going to happen today. I need to get something turned in to Harrick tonight before I go to sleep (whenever that may be) so I plan on getting in a decently long ride tomorrow. Maybe I'll do 50+ out west... I'm feeling ambitious. I know that may sound lame, but with the distances I've been riding lately, it'd be ambitious. Cheaha is a'comin' and I need to have mileage (and hills, lots of hills) in my legs before then.
Had a fun guy night last night with Chad in town. We met for dinner with Jerry and then headed back to Carrie and I's condo and played a little WoW with Richard and Wayne. Good times.
Carrie is doing a half-marathon that looks to be tough this weekend. I'm going down there with her and her friend Merri Su (also running) with my bike and hope to get a good ride in. They are pretty much running the course from the Texas State road race. Yeah, the one with the big hill. Other than that it shouldn't be too bad. I need to figure out where to ride as they probably won't like me riding on the half-marathon course.
Okay, I need to get to writing. Have a good Thursday.
Labels: Cheaha, cycling, work, WoW
8:33 AM |
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Lent
Today starts Lent. It also starts Carrie and I's quest to not eat meat until Easter. We are playing by Catholic rules though, seafood is okay. No land animals.
My bike is ready... it was actually ready last night, but I didn't get the message until after they were closed. I'm going to run by there tonight after the LASR Colloquium.
Tonight we are having our virtual guy night in now four different locations: Austin, Ann Arbor, New Orleans, and Tallahassee. I haven't actually played WoW in a while, so it will be fun to jump on for a bit.
1:31 PM |
Thursday, January 25, 2007
More Outland
Inspired by Chad, I decided to throw up this screenshot of flying through Outland. It really does look very cool.
1:02 PM |
Monday, January 22, 2007
The game didn't completely swallow me
While I did play a good bit of WoW this weekend, I'm back at school and ready to work. This week should be productive as my advisor will be in Austin on Friday and Saturday.
The expansion pack seems really well done. They have addressed a lot of complaints that people had with the game and I think have created a much more accessible game. I think the average player will now be able to access all the content, it just may take them a little while longer than the person that devotes their life to the game. This is opposed to before where lots of the "end-game" content was only really accessible to people who spent a large, large amount of time playing.
I had my free personal training and assessment session today at our gym. They did a body fat assessment and I came in at ~23.5%. That's too high for those keeping score at home. I know I was a little fluffier than I would like these days as these pants I'm wearing today don't really fit that well. They fit at the end of the summer when I was probably at my best fitness ever. I need to start moving in that direction again. 4 weekends from now is the first collegiate race and the next weekend after that is Walburg/Pace Bend.
On the subject of the cycling team, we have our first meeting of the semester tonight. A representative from our new bike shop sponsor (Bicycle Sport Shop) will be there. Everybody is really excited about the new sponsor, and I think it will be good for the team.
I was sad to see the Saints lose. They had a really good run, and hopefully they'll be able to build off of the momentum and have a great season next year. I was glad to see the Colts pull it off against the Patriots. As Chad said, it will be nice to have somebody to cheer for in the Super Bowl.
Back to work, hope everybody's weeks are starting well.
Labels: BC, body fat, UTCC, WoW
4:49 PM |
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Melting
We've finally thawed out. With that, Chad was able to leave and head down to San Antonio.
The ice days are fun (as you get to stay home) but it is nice to have things return to a little more normal pace.
My copy of the WoW expansion should be waiting for me at home. Woohoo! Thanks again to Carrie for ordering it for me.
I will try to put my pictures of the ice up soon.
4:59 PM |
