laborless day

so far, labor day has certainly been without labor... at least on my end. the weather this weekend has been wonderful however, and i have been trying to take advantage of that fact. sunny and mild during the day, and curiously cool and quite windy at night.

....

so, i started this post on monday, but it's taken me all of 4 days to actually finish it. that should be a pretty good indication of more or less how productive i've been this week. i've been meaning to respond to emails (david, that's an awesome brook trout you hooked!), read my mail (i'm accumulating another towering pile), and not least of all get work done for my meeting with my research group tomorrow afternoon (it's going to be a long night i think). oh well. the weather has been so beautiful recently and my motivation levels have been at an all time low... sort of like academic a.d.h.d.. it took me something like 5 hours today to plot 30 fracture planes on stereonets and do some basic kamb-contouring of the data... which should have taken me a quarter of that time. instead i was constantly side-tracked by internet diversions and trips to the fridge (only to find that something tasty had not materialized since the last time i checked it).


as soon as i get through this meeting tomorrow, i should be at somewhat of a 'cruise control' point. i can get cranking on my summer project without worrying about trying to tie up loose-ends from my research over the last few months.


....and of course this posting is yet another way for me to avoid work, but at least now this will be out of my head.

~t

missing:

my relatively brand-new urban/dirt jumping bike. stolen sometime this morning from the foyer below my front porch. i hope whatever lame jerk took my bike breaks his damn neck on it. still, it's just a bike and i do have three other bikes to ride.



it still stings though....



~t

this is boulder

~t

rockies v. jays

hey all...

lazy sunday today, with thoughts of narnia and cupcakes...

spent last night at 'coors field' (denver's baseball stadium) watching my first major-league game in almost 20 years. watching the game is a lot more fun now that i know the basic rules of the game, but baseball is still just not that interesting to behold. it also didn't help that canada got their arse handed to them, the game wasn't exactly suspenseful with the jays scoring only one run.

anyway, the real showcase at the game was the sunset. coors field is situated such that the view over the bleachers at left field provides game-goers with a panoramic vista of the colorado front range and the snow-capped rockies... the sun set over the mountains and the scattered thunderhead clouds over the plains lit up in different shades depending on their altitudes and for a while it seemed like no one was watching the game any more.

the big thing to come out of all this is that now i know exactly what time to head out with my camera this evening, to see if the show will repeat itself....

~t

gloriously dry

ahhhh.....

i think i'm finally 100% back to colorado time. i'm not coughing anymore, and even my heart isn't thudding from the altitude nearly as much as a week ago. three more weeks and my red-blood-cell count should be as high as ever, so i'm making sure to eat plenty of iron and protein rich foods... reminds me i should go get a steak to cook tonight.

did some good work today, maps, papers, etc... i've also finally waded through my huge stack of four month old mail that had been occupying an entire corner of the living room floor since january. the past few days (and the last week or so in general) has provided more sunny, dry, wonderful days than my entire stay in taiwan... i've been just riding my bike everywhere through town and marveling at the beauty of this place again.

so yeah.. i miss all my friends in taipei and even the bustle of the city, but the view of the snow-capped rockies every morning makes my return to boulder "bearable".

i tried to take a few pics in the last few days, but i have yet to get any off the camera. some pics of prarie-dogs, folks at our party the other night (which by the way was fun, but due to many reasons was a very low-key event... attendance was only in the 20-ish range), and maybe some random shots of boulder around town. we'll see.....

~t

film is great

hey all...


it's been a few days since my last post and i am finally starting to feel more like a normal human after readjusting to colorado time a little bit.

i just went to the camera store yesterday to develop several rolls of film that i had sitting in my camera case. it's been a while since i've shot with film and i forgot how much i like the results. below are a few of those pics.. which go back all the way to last november when i was in utah... espresso at the danshui cafe, regina throwing pottery, a bridge near tian mu, emi on the beach, wood in the canyonlands.











~T

back!

yes... i've arrived... i've slept for the last couple of days... i plan to sleep at least another day.

i got back to colorado friday afternoon, and within minutes went to the southern sun brewery. happy hour was in effect, and about 14 people showed up from my department. saturday was spent mostly riding my bike around for a while, then taking a nap between bouts of cruising the town. it's sunny and blue here... the air is dry and big fluffy white clouds appear over the mountains at the edge of town and float out over the plains. trees are leafing and grass is growing with fat dark green blades, and as always the golden colorado sun takes the edge off the cool alpine breeze descending from the shadowed valleys of the front range.

even though this is technically 'home', it still feels a little alien to me. as if when i boarded the plane to come here, i wasn't so much returning to colorado as i was leaving for colorado. it's tough to explain, but in any case it's good to be back here.

~t

fiatvera / pittsburg

check out albert song's photography... his style seems very spontaneous but observant. something like what i try to do with my photos when i carry my camera around the city here, though i think he meets with somewhat more success in the execution than i do....

~t

home stretch

ha. i'm in the home stretch... four more days in taiwan then i get on a jet and about 20 hours later i'll be back in boulder. as i've said before, i'm filled with split feelings about leaving here but overall i am happy to be heading back west (or east... i guess east of east is still west, but it's all a big sphere so it doesn't really matter one way or the other). i feel like i'm getting over being sick, too. i'm not coughing nearly half as much as i was before, which is good since my coughing ultimately caused me to pull a muscle in my rib-cage so it hurts like hell to cough anyway.

on another note: my extensive knowledge of procrastination has served me well so far today, and i'd like to share a new discovery with you, so that all of you might also put off doing useful work in favor of some lighter fare. please check out the plants in motion page from the bio department at indiana university... i especially like the section on nastic movements. i bring this up because one of the plants featured there (the mimosa or 'sensitive plant') grows all over the place here. i used to have small potted mimosas when i was a kid, and even 20 years later i can't help playing with these things... every time i run into one in the field, i have to touch a couple leaves and watch them close up.



~t