monday morning...

phooo. i've been in the office since about 7:45 this morning. i plan to be here till at least 4pm. lots on the plate for this week, but it's all work related. meeting today and tomorrow as well as friday. presentations wednesday and friday. will probably get another homework assignment today for next week. field-trip guide due friday. i think i have to go for a ride at some point today or i'm gonna pop.

so, the life of a grad: busy busy busy. it's certainly made me long for my days as a consultant somewhat... i think i need to get back to taiwan sometime soon; even though taipei is a frenetic city, it feels much more relaxed than boulder at times, i gues mostly because i don't have to go to class everyday there.

i've also decided (sort-of) on my next big adventure trip: mountainbiking through switzerland and italy on the alta rezia route; gondola serviced descending of about 60,000 vertical feet in 6 days. we'll see if that ever really happens...

~t

down week

hey all..

so far this week has been mediocre. some good points, a few bad points, but mostly just so-so. i suppose starting the week off on sunday with a class "a" hangover from the beer-luck wasn't necessarily a huge help. monday i got a test back from school that was quite a bit lower than i thought it would be, and i've just felt very undirected with work this week. had a few chances to get out and ride my mtn bike so far, which has been great. the trails are still drying out from all the snow recently... in some areas they are still covered with snow... which is great; i tend to equate riding through mud and snow with my adventures in new hampshire. The rest of the week, all the parts in between the good and bad, just sort of happened. overall it seems like i've just been distanced from my normal mode for a few days. hopefully towards the end of the week things will start to look up, and next week won't start off in a low.

~t

snow!

hey all,

today is the second time in a week that i have woken up to see several inches of snow on the ground. the odd thing about it, at least when compared to the eastern snows that i grew up with, is that it is apparently always bright and sunny the day immediately after a snow. it's saturday morning at 830... normally i would never be awake much less up at this time, but this morning i was awakened by the bright sun bouncing through my window; amplified by the bright white blanket of ice crystals that coats the ground and clings to the trees outside. i think i'm going to take a quick lap around the backyard on my skis, and then start my day...

~t

festivities

yes... it's that time of year again...

the Third Biannual Boulder BeerLuck is upon us. this saturday the 21st, malted barley and hops will abound and many brews will be enjoyed. to be honest I have no idea how many people will be showing up to this event... it could be 15, it could be 50+. it's a good thing in any case that we now have a whole house to host the event out of. i've even posted a new blog: BeerLuckBlog, in preparation for the weekend. i hope to have some interesting pictures and maybe even a list of all the beers from this fall's beerluck posted at some point in the near future.

so... come one, come all... and email me if you didn't already receive the invitation... chances are you are welcome as well.

~t

Navajo

ahh sunday... a good day to sit at home and relax after yesterday's adventure: climbing navajo peak in the indian peaks wilderness with tim and cynthia. we got an early start (5:30) and hiked the four mile approach in a couple of hours. from the end of the trail, we headed across the talus fields (which are an interesting mix of natural talus and glaciers' morainal material) towards the base of the peak. the climb starts with a medium angle snow-climb. the snow slope is probably about 50 degrees, but the snow was perfect; nice styrofoam texture with a crispy crust. it's amazing to me how fast you can gain elevation on snow. you just sort of plod up the face, focusing on foot placement and balance (we all had packs on) and sooner or later you pause and take a look around. the sudden realization that you are hundreds of vertical feet from where you were, staring down a perfectly planar slope, can be vertiginous. ...that and the fact that you can see nebraska from that same vantage point. the snow climb ends in the saddle between najavo and it's neighbor, and the technical rock climbing begins. now, i said it was technical, which is a bit of a misnomer. the hardest pitch out of the two-or-three pitches there is 5.4, so it's not demanding... it's just cold and high and can be awkward if you're wearing plastic boots and a pack. we scrambled up to the climb and roped up... just as the weather was starting to really turn from clear to snowy. after topping out, we ate some food and headed down the descent route; off the south ridge of the mountain and into airplane gully. airplane is interesting because there's actually an old plane-wreck there. lots of twisted aluminum and distorted structure make it hard to identify what's what, or what's left, but it reminded me very much of reading old tintin comics where on several occasions there where rescue missions mounted to remote crash sites in high mountains. we finished out the descent and backtracked through the valley towards the car. as we walked, a wet snow fell languidly from the clouds above, muting everything in the valley. the spruces took on a familiar look and brush came alive with subtle yet distinct lavender and sage colored hues.

as we reached the car at dusk we were wet and tired but in high spirits... it's not too often that you get to spend an entire day on an alpine adventure with friends.






~t

lenticular soup

riding into school today was very nice... chilly for sure, but nice. the main thing was that the entire front-range was capped with lenticular clouds. altocumulus standing lenticularis... the result of stable moist air that's forced into a standing compression wave pattern after flowing over mountainous terrain, is always cool to see. here's a shot from the cu-boulder web-cam... they were a lot better earlier this morning.


~t

aspen

~t

creationism

kent hovind is nuts. someone just sent me a link to one of his 2 hour long lectures... the videos of which you can watch on the net. this guy is a creationist through and through... with all the pompous self importance you would expect from someone who thinks they are enlightened and everyone else in the educated world is not only incorrect in their assumptions about the nature of physical reality, but also stupid for it. he sells himself as a humble and god-fearing man, but is anything but. he tries to be funny, but succeeds at only the most sophomoric levels. i do recommend reading one of the articles on his site (pick one, they're all equally entertaining)... i still have yet to speak with a creationist who can logically and intelligently come up with an explanation for their beliefs that allow the existence of things like nuclear physics... things we have not only theorized but observed and practiced (nuclear fission wouldn't work if certain uranium isotopes weren't unstable, for instance). anyway... take a look...

~t

(*&@!#$*&

i don't hate math... i hate it when professors are incompetant at writing understandable assignments... relying on mathematic expressions to fill in for their inability to explain things in words. things like, "recall the simple analysis we made to develop the rayleigh number" (said analysis was something like 3 pages long). i will n e v e r take another class from this professor.

~T

french press

ahhhh...

i made a brilliant decision today: i brought my small one-cup french press into the office. it now occupies the shelf next to my desk. though i relish the opportunities that walking to the coffee shop offers (procrastination-wise), it's nice not to spend two or three dollars everytime i want to drink some coffee. i think i finally realized that i wasn't ever going to drop $400 on a nice espresso machine, so this little $20 press will suffice.

~t yeah... the picture is taken on my cell-phone. I still don't have a real memory card for it, so this isn't even the full resolution.

*thud*

... the sound of my head hitting the desk. it's almost 2pm on tuesday and for some reason i am exhausted... or unmotivated.... or something. i am trying to get through some homework for my class (it seems to be less odious than the last assignment was) but i am having a real problem focusing on anything in particular. i slept for something like 10 hours last night too...

anyway... back to work (if i can concentrate on it)

~t