slidey-snow

The semester has officially begun, to the tune of 6 inches of fresh snow that fell overnight. I opted to drive in, and had one small bump with another car around a blind corner in the parking lot of the coffee shop I'm sitting in now. People all over town are driving like morons (this particular person slid into me, but we just barely kissed bumpers) so I'm hiding in the coffee shop across from campus that has comfy leather chairs and a fireplace. Thankfully there are no undergrads clogging the chairs, mostly because they don't have any work yet... but I can see that everyone in here is likely a graduate student or professor.

Distracting me from the sounds of two people next to me yammering on about something, is the Crystal Castles album that I just got turned onto... check them out:

~t

Forest Fires

Yesterday and last night North Boulder experienced a thousand-acre wild fire. Almost 11000 homes were evacuated, but only 4 structures burned. High winds (gusting to ~73mph, ~116kph) damaged electricity lines which started the fire, which was then spread rapidly in the windy conditions. Several ridge lines burned, and the fire was visible more than 20 miles away.

I drove around the town at about 9pm, stopping to photograph the fire from several different locations. NCAR (in south boulder) was a good place to watch from (and more than 5 miles away from the blaze), but the photos from Violet park (adjacent to the fire, in North Boulder) was better for detailed shots... the pic below was shot from there.



~t

another mindless video re-post

My brain is a bit frazzled at the moment and getting back into the swing of work is tough, so I'll just post this little teaser from the newly returned and reinvented redbull rampage contest.



~t

christmas tree

This tree mysteriously appeared in my house without my ever having to raise a bow-saw in a national forest. another pic will follow once it's decorated... but I like it bare at the moment.

~t

science blocks

Figures take forever!!!
~t

building blocks

Figures for a talk at AGU... these are the drafts, without any of the sciency-stuff on the edges of the block diagrams.

~t

back to work...

Ah, I'm finally done with teaching this semester... and not a moment too soon. The American Geophysical Union's annual fall meeting is in one week and my presentation is 80 percent done, but that last 20 percent is pretty friggin' important. It's also the hardest, because it's the last 20 percent that makes the whole presentation work. It's taking me a while just to get back into my own research. Anyway, this week will be completely focused on finishing this presentation and trouble-shooting issues that some colleagues have brought up.

I am really looking forward to being back in San Fran...

~t

Winter!!

~t

today's

~t

seasonal

This morning Boulder awoke to a thin veneer of ice coating every leaf and blade exposed to the sky, looking like we had been attacked overnight by someone set on varnishing the earth. Actually this is quite a nice change from the 70 degree days we've been getting... not to say that 70 degree weather isn't nice, but it is currently November in Colorado. My chilly bike ride to work this morning, for which I swaddled myself in fleece and down whilst slurping my coffee with one hand, took me past the same cop who wrote me a citation yesterday. This morning he was writing another bike-commuter a citation... as I rode past and gave the other biker a knowing look, I raised my coffee cup to the officer and reiterated what he told me yesterday, "keep one hand on the bar!".

more importantly, I also rode past a blackberry stand that I stopped at and snapped this picture of. A nice image of what this season should really look like.

~t

Picture Rock

Be sure to watch the high-quality version on youtube (just click the video when it's playing)... this is shot over the last couple of days. Trail crews of volunteers built this trail with the guidance and support of BMA and IMBA, and Boulder OSMP.

~t

My living room...

This was my living room, as it appeared this afternoon. Ridiculous. The silver bike in the stand has a cracked frame (the downtube is cracked across the primary pivot mount) so all the parts are getting transferred to the SC Nomad in the background... it's about time anyway. My one roommate who doesn't really ride was sitting in the midst of this disarray this evening and said he thought it was 'pretty cool' when I apologized for the mess. For the rest of you riding fools, living in these conditions is so-so, but it's much better when you have a two-car garage for the 'fleet'.



~t

rattlesnake gulch

This is pretty shaky, but I uploaded a much higher quality version compared to the first one... sorry but shaky's what you get with a 54mm lens (the 170 degree wide-angle would solve that) but you can still get a sense of how loose and rocky this trail is. I am still searching for a really ideal trail to film from top to bottom... these clips are kind of test runs... hopefully by the spring I'll have a good plan for a trail shoot. BTW, notice the 8-point buck that was on the trail at the bottom!

~t

launch

This is just a small step-down from one of the parking lots on campus... there's a bit of a booter to the take-off but the tranny is pretty shallow so it's not really a good idea to hit it with too much speed... you'll huck to flat and wipe on the concrete that's right at the bottom of the hill. For those of you not fluent in bikebrolingo: this hill drops off after a parking lot. There is a bit of a lip at the edge, so if you hit it too fast you will overshoot the smooth landing and that would be bad.

~t

Eldorado Canyon

~t

too funny.

Whazzup!!! This was a Budweiser commercial in 2000... the redux is awesome...





~t

Amazing...

We, as young people, are hungry for this chance at choosing the direction we want for our country, and the chance to shape the face we show to the rest of the world. This generation, my generation, faces eagerly for the first time forward into the uncertain future, knowing that we will be tested but certain of our ability to meet any challenges ahead. Like Barack says, "there is nothing false about hope", and we have shown this already. We will try, in the coming years, to bring change and support progress as best we can, so that everyone's hopes have a chance to be realized. Now is a time for peace, for unity, and for strength. My own hope is for all the people who feel as I do to realize that what we have won in this historic election is not change... but a chance to be a part of change, to participate in our own future, and to nurse and grow this nation back into what we think it should be. Our home, and a home to all those who want what we want... not to be rich, or consume everything in sight, but to live together and work together to ensure for future generations the same opportunities and freedoms that have been provided for us.

~t

Yes, We Can.

If you're still bitter after listening to this, there's always four years from now. In the meantime however, deal with it. Congratulations President Obama. We HAVE chosen to change. Yes, We Can.

~t

Republicans and Voter Fraud

WHY is it, every time I hear about a voter fraud scandal, it's in the form of an attack against democratic voters perpetrated by (presumably) conservative "citizens".

Note: I've separated the word "citizens" here because in my view (and that of various philosophical thinkers) a true citizen is someone who contributes constructively to their society... in some political models citizenship is only earned through service. People who practice voter fraud are not citizens; these people do just as much damage to our democracy as any militant terrorist could.

The latest fraud-scandal comes in the form of bogus text-messages telling Obama supporters to wait until tomorrow (AFTER election day) to cast their votes to avoid long lines. Personally I think the FBI (and CIA) should extradite whichever abjectly loathsome (again, presumably) republican schmucks that sent the messages to Gitmo to be forcibly interrogated and indefinitely detained.

~t