HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

tonight i have plans to drink the better part of a bottle of veuve clicquot ponsardin brut and set off explosives. well, not actually explosives, but fireworks anyway. left-overs from new hampshire. live free or die!

plans for tonight are fairly free-form... go to someones house, maybe go downtown, then crack the bottle of french brut and light the fuses! i may even bring my camera 'round with me tonight and take some snaps of the action. either way, i'll post at some point tomorrow.

till then,
~t

ouchie ouchie ouchie

heh.

so, here in boulder there is an interesting phenomenon that occurs when high pressure systems move in over the mountains. the jet-stream basically gets pushed right down to the ground surface, creating extreme winds that blow out of the mountains. today we are experiencing just that, with a sustained wind speed of 45 miles per hour, gusting to over 70 miles per hour. i live about one and a half miles, downhill and due east, from the geology department. on days like this, i take the bus into work, but bring my bike with me on the rack they supply on the front of the bus. getting home is a breeze. today was no different, until i hit a bump at over 30mph at precisely the same instant a strong cross-gust caught me off-guard. excuse the profanity here, but i think it is well deserved... i promptly ate shit. before i knew it, i was sliding down the sidewalk (at least it wasn't the road) a lot faster than i would have liked. i destroyed my jacket, ripped the sweatshirt i had underneath it, blew out the side of my full-finger gloves (again, thank god for those) and tore a chunk of leather out of my shoe. unfortunately, when one eats shit in the particular manner that i did (prone and spread-eagle) most normal jackets ride up just far enough to expose the tender skin covering a persons hip-bones. luckily for me, all that skin was removed when i crashed, so i don't have to worry about it any more. unluckily for me, the nerve endings that were exposed are still there... and they are not happy about that at all. hopefully the picture i'm about to post here will not be removed by blogger.com. squeamish people should probably not look. this is perhaps the best patch of road-rash i have ever had, so naturally i want to share it with all of you.

enjoy!!





















~t

bond.... james bond

hiyall,

i'm sitting here on my couch watching the "oo8 days of oo7" james bond marathon on spike tv, slugging grey goose martinis (shaken, not stirred... of course) on this tuesday night, the 27th of december. the particular episode that's on now is moonraker... perhaps the single most sci-fi influenced bond movie ever. though it came out 11 years after kubrick's classic, 2001, a space odyssey, it shares some traits in common, including a few musical nods to the theme of 2001 here and there. there are also nods to spielberg's sci-fi classic, "close encounters of the third kind", also via musical cues. (while i'm thinking of it, the name "spielberg" according to babelfish.com means 'play-mountain', but through my extremely limited understanding of german, it sounds more like, "mountain of crap"). other than that, not much is new. last night i went to the mountain sun brewery with greg, where we had plans to meet up with kelly and a couple of her friends. well, kelly and friends decided to bail, so greg and i were left with the responsibility (if you can call it that) of finishing off the pitcher and three pints we had ordered in anticipation of three additional souls showing up (it was happy hour). to add to the chore (i say chore like it's a bad thing) of finishing this sublime brew 'solos', we had made the decision to order a pitcher of the brewery's "java porter". now... a pitcher of porter is intimidating enough, with its strongly toasted-malt flavour and bitter finish. add to that the fact that the mountain sun adds about 8 oz's of brewed coffee to each pint of java porter and you end up with a strong caffeine buzz mixed with the effects of drinking a pitcher of beer... resulting in a stomach-ache, hangover, and insomnia all at once. awesome!

anyway... today was a recovery day, catching up on lost sleep from last night. in my caffeine fueled insomnia i was extra aware of my impending departure from the u.s., and ultra aware of all the work i have left to do before i leave. certainly not the best way to relax when you're trying to fall asleep.

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sudden thought, after paying attention to james bond here... apparently all spies, no matter what their nationality, are sex-crazed egomaniacs. not only that, but (fortuituously for the spies) every member of the opposite sex they encounter seem to also be complete nymphos.

so with that deep thought, i leave you, my faithful blog-readers... and bid you good night. by the way, i'm totally going to quit grad-school and join the cia.

~t

xmas eve...

ha! i just checked my mail and voila! ... my entry visa for taiwan has arrived. i was just talking to my friend leah on i.m. about it, and i was saying how it was coming down to the wire, well now i have my visa in-hand, and have nothing to worry about. awesome! this is a great x-mas present. i also got a couple of cards today which is great. i was wandering around the campus today, it was deserted. utterly silent. beautiful day, peaceful to walk around, but just slightly erie since this campus is seemingly never quiet. other than walking around today, i didn't really do anything. i really have just been sleeping for the last couple of days and it's great. i think i'll sleep tomorrow too, unless i decide to motivate and go xc-skiinig up at eldora. that actually sounds like fun so i may go do that. merry christmas to all my friends and family... i hope you're all doing well this night.


~t

squirrels

heyall,

today's been absolutely great so far! got up at about 8, slightly more than slightly hung-over from pasta dinner at my italian friends' house, which of course included more than a few bottles of red wine last night. after banging around a bit, and consuming about a liter of water, i left the house to pick up greg to go ice climbing in boulder canyon. met up with tim and his friend (and stella the dog) at the crag. started out leading a fun w.i.4-ish climb, then free-soloed a cruisable w.i.2 pitch (well... i put in one screw for my mom's sake... hope you appreciate that mom!). after that it was time to get lunch at the mtn sun brew pub (and a pint, of course). ...then home to clean up and ride my bike into the office to play with data and procrastinate by writing this post. although the title of this post has nothing to do with pasta or ice or beer, it does have to do with the picture i snapped yesterday while walking across campus to get my daily dose of caffeine. these fuzzy buggers are all over the place here.


~t

axial surfaces

hey everyone... another quick update: im finally (!) done with my exams and now have some time to really get down to brass tacks. im busily mapping out axial surfaces on some of our taiwanese data and making some cool pictures in the process. unfortunately i cant post them here... for reasons of security, blah blah blah. i think thats mostly bs, but its what i keep getting told by the folks in charge of the data. beyond that im really (really really) glad classes are done. its interesting to realize im really back in school, but at the same time thats an odd thought because im about to take off for four months to do research. go figure. im really looking forward to the summer and next fall, because i can continue to find new people and places here in colorado. in truth im really looking forward to the next five years, because i know (as much as one can) that ill be staying in one town and doing one job, instead of moving all over hell and creation every 9-12 months like i have for the last five years.

anyway, ill be adding another post sooner than later, maybe even with some pics. till then...

~t

tuesday after wust

hello hello,

pic is of the sunset the other day... high cold clouds being lit from behind... looked like towering flames across the sky.

today is tuesday... the tuesday after wust, or western us tectonics for anyone who doesn't know my internal acronym system. after the written final for that class took place on friday, i spent the entire weekend in a state of mental stupor. wandering aimlessly, acting impulsively, and generally not paying attention to anything. i also slept a lot, also whenever i felt like it, and that was great. i think my sleep-debt is finally paid-off.

this week will be mostly just getting paperwork for taiwan finished... i just got my tickets: officially the 4th of january through the 5th of may. i will submit my visa application either this afternoon, or tomorrow morning. my contract for independant study will also be submitted tomorrow. i need to get my phone signed up for international service. need to get a sublet set up if possible. etc, etc.

today also marks the first real snow we've had in boulder this year. there's about an inch on the ground now, and it's really cold out (10F) and windy. yesterday we suffered through 60mph winds all day, and today the cold has settled in. i had the brilliant idea of going fly fishing on saturday, which was foolish considering the creeks are all pretty much frozen solid in the mountains. i guess the season has passed. too cold to bike, too frozen to fish, not enough snow to xc-ski, and i still don't have a board to go ride at one of the ski resorts here. oh well, soon enough i'll be back in tropical taiwan, and thoughts of snow will be put aside.

not much else going on this week... it's agu (american geophysical union) week, the huge conference for earth scientists in san fran... this just means that the majority of the students and faculty in my department are gone this week.... pretty quiet here... maybe a little too quiet....

~t