graduation to...

today is graduation day at the university. parents and extended families are beginning to clog every artery and vein of sidewalk on campus, clotting at intersections and entrapping their respective graduates. some people are happy, some are grumpy and sour. some are overbearing. no matter what happens amongst the crowds today, they will mostly disappear tomorrow, leaving this town serene for several months. i'm still happy being a student for now... i'm kind of proud of the fact that i've figured a way to stay in school until i turn 30.

congratulations on all your hard work, undergrad students... except those of you who were slackers and barely eked out a degree in leisure studies... to you shining examples of academic wunderkinder, I bow my head. I was always impressed by people for whom just making it through college in one piece was a real challenge, especially when they actually finished and were handed a degree identical to my own (conversely this bothered some of the faculty/grad students at my own alma mater). good on ya, i suppose.

~t

dumb-a$$

one might think that with age and experience comes wisdom and an appreciation for common sense. nix, nein, nope and think again. as i've mentioned before, i'm working on "manuals" on my bikes... a coasting, balancing wheelie. i am getting a lot better at these, but i am by no means a manual-superstar, so i still eat it occasionally when i'm practicing.

musaki kusahara pulling a manual


today i was doing really well... i had a few really solid, long, and seated (harder) manuals, and this lead to my being a little too relaxed on my last attempt. a word on manuals: relaxation is key, as well as being comfortable with hanging all of your weight off the back of the bike, past the center-point of the rear hub, in order to get into a position that will set you and your bike into a balance that's centered on the rear wheel. relax a little too much, lean a little too far, and you're going over - backwards. i was cruising down the avenue near my department building on campus, coasting a manual and going at a good clip... everything was feeling right. i started to let myself really settle into the position, and i felt the bike get a little high in front. i very lightly feathered the rear brake (a hydraulic disc set-up) to adjust, but instead of going forward, i just started to slow down a little. by the time it was obvious that i was going to crash, i was still going a little too fast to just hop off the bike and run it out, so i ended up going over backwards in a seated position, right onto the blacktop. the worst that happened was a rip in my favorite pd&c jeans, and a nice-sized raspberry on my knee. i may be 27, but i still act like a 5 year old on a playground most of the time.

i got up, laughing and brushing myself off, got back on my bike and wheelied away down the side-walk.

~t

attractive juice

today marks my return to reality from the caffeine induced haze of the last couple of days. redbull is a hell of a soda, but caffeine, like all mind and metabolism altering drugs, should be used in moderation. those empty baby-blue and silver cans stare down at me from their recycling box on my office shelf (i drink the sugar free stuff, because nothing ruins a caffeine buzz like a sugar-crash) just begging me to find more companions for them.

...but no, not this time. after practically having the shakes and experiencing some of the most oddly vivid dreams (involving things like the uncontrollable and alarmingly copious micturition of jagermeister-colored urine, among other weird and disturbing themes) i awoke this morning feeling much better. it was literally as though i had gone through caffeine withdrawal through the night. i was hungry and thirsty, but instead of heading to roma's for my usual double cortado and croissant, i went to whole-foods. i picked up a nice breakfast and a half gallon of fresh orange juice. buying orange juice from a place like whole foods can be a daunting experience, choosing from a host of different brands, types and mixtures. i went for the simple fresh-made stuff that costs an arm and a leg.

i parked near campus and walked in to the office this morning to finish up some work (i'm still working on it) and carried the half gallon of juice with me. the odd thing is that while i was walking from 'the hill' to my office, i saw about six attractive young women who all gave me smiles in passing. maybe it was the fact that classes are over, maybe it's the fact that today is also the first time i've been showered and cleanly shaven in several days. i'd like to credit the fact that i was carrying an eight-dollar half gallon of juice, mostly because i've walked down that same path innumerable times in the past, and have not had the same response when i didn't have the juice, regardless of my personal appearance. of course this is all leading me to hatch an idea of some pseudo scientific experiment... maybe we'll see if this hypothesis has any basis in reality.

either way, the juice was good.

~t

night light

the lights are off for dramatic effect, but this is always what it feels like to me when i'm sitting in an office alone working late at night.

~t

undergrad-style

this is going to be a long night. i'm cranking on this (yes, the same) project and am fueling my productivity with caffeine and crackers. at some point soon, i will break in order to sup some food (or more likely chew it). it's frustrating to be thinking about other things besides work right now because these other thoughts are distracting. thoughts of summer are foremost in my mind: work without the chore of classes, trips to taiwan, coming visits with friends, anything but what i'm battling with at the moment. my advisor, were he looking over my shoulder now, would tell me to stop thinking and just do. - or to run and jump, screaming and naked, into the 'deep end' of my data and swim to the other side (his analogies are quite inventive).

8pm, time for a beef and green chile burrito from illegal petes. mmmmm.

~t

action plan

i am approaching the twelfth hour of the semester, and my goal is in sight... just sort of distant right now. i have lots of caffeine on hand and nothing else on my schedule besides tutoring at 2pm today. the remainder will be spent finishing figures and getting conclusions typed up. i spent most of yesterday staring at figures, and trying to figure out what's next... my focus is a little narrower now, hopefully it all gels in the next day or so.

~t

dope minimal beats from L'ELECTRIQUE

i don't usually do this on a post, but if you read this within the next 10 minutes or so, go to net radio l'electrique. they are casting an amazing dj set of minimal right now... best i've heard in months, actually.

and if you miss it this time around, check it out anyway... good net radio station.

http://netmusique.com/... click on 'electrique'.

~t

200th post!

ha. this post is my 200th on this blog. a lot of those have been mundane and forgettable, but hopefully a few of those have stood out for some of you readers. so, some quick stats: since starting this blog a bit more than a year ago, it has seen well over four thousand visits (4295 at this moment). on average the site sees traffic from around 80 unique users a month, or 30 unique users a week. traffic to this site originates from 5 continents, mostly north america and asia. friends and family in new york, florida (hi mom), california and taiwan top the list of most frequent visitors... thanks for all your attention and positive feedback. and for the few of you who have asked: no, i still haven't submitted any of my essays to the new york times travel section, or any other periodical... maybe soon.

anyway.. thank you all for your readership, and please feel free to let me know if there's anything you'd like to see me write about. here's to the next 200!

~t

science-y stuff

phew... still plugging on this foreland reconstruction. for those of you not on the up and up with my daily research progess, my current project entails reconstructing the kinematic history of the taiwanese foreland (literally the land in front of the mountains) for the last ~2 million years in the region directly west (or tectonically 'in front') of my study area, Puli. the idea is that in order to know where things are going, one has to know where they've been. it all involves a lot of pseudo-3D geometry and eye-crossing. by pseudo-3D, i mean that i'm using 2D constructions, based in different (orthogonal) coordinate systems and trying to kind of mesh them together. think of two pieces of paper, each with something drawn on them, each one penetrating the plane of the other at a right angle. the combined drawings on each sheet defining the structure of an object within its respective plane, giving a 'pseudo-3D' rendering of what that object looks like in real life. this isn't supposed to sound like plato's allegory of the cave... it's less abstract than that.



...hopefully.

~t

whee!

what a show-off.... actually, i've been practicing my wheelies around town for the last couple of months. i'm working on 'manuals' (coasting wheelies: no pedaling to keep you up, just balance) not so much because they're useful on the trail, but because they're just fun.



~t

steeper than...

i think i mentioned something about 'clearing technical lines' while in moab. it occurs to me that not everyone is a mountain biker and so not everyone will really appreciate what i mean by that. the term 'technical', when talking about bike trails, generally refers to the level of difficulty and by default the likelyhood of a rider navigating the trail without falling and/or getting hurt. on the east-coast, technical trails often have sections that are off-camber, choked with gnarled tree roots, loose rocks, or some combination of those. out here in the rockies and out on the colorado plateau, 'technical' can mean something different. i've gone from riding a hardtail (rigid) frame back east, to a full suspension bike with 6" of travel on both wheels... just so i can actually ride trails here without getting off my bike every 50 feet.

one particular obstacle on the trail 'behind the rocks' in moab is call 'nose dive hill'. it is steep. it is rocky. more accurately, it is bedrock and i suppose you could describe it as a cliff of sorts. our group of riders came upon nose dive at the same time that several "jeepers" (4WD off-roaders) did... both groups, one fueled by cafe lattes and power bars, the other by beef jerky, beer and gasoline, stopped at the top to scout the descent. each group tried sizing the other up and summarily decided the other had a snowball's chance in hell of actually making it down in one piece.

looking up the outcrop at nosedive. notice
where the guy in the foreground is standing...

dropping in from the top

...remember that last drop-off the guy was standing on?
in the picture it's directly above my head and it's what
i just had to ride off of to exit the line.

clean.

~t

my technicolor leg

not surprisingly, i came back from moab with some bumps and scrapes... nothing big (not like one of the other guys who came away with 7 stitches in his face). classic for me though, i did crash my bike fairly hard on a section of trail that was smooth and open on the first day. i was feeling sort of off that day, and barreling into a corner with lots of heat didn't pan out for me as well as i would have liked; i went over the bars but somehow managed to scissor my left thigh between my frame and handlebars. the bike proceeded to follow me up and over, finally landing on top of me (i said it was classic). anyway, my thigh now exhibits a wonderful technicolor bruise that takes up significant real estate... check it out:



~t

springtime

just snapped this out my window...



~t

moab, take two...

i returned to moab, utah, this past weekend. ostensibly to ride my bike (which I did quite a lot of) but more accurately to escape the confines of my office for a weekend before locking myself in for the remaining two weeks of the semester. the weather was fair, the riding was good (i managed to clear some very technical lines), and on the morning we left the views were beautiful. see below....





~t

thunderstorm

occasional deep rumblings that resonate with the earth are felt as waves all through my body. thrum of heavy, cold drops hitting the ground and trees and roof above me. expectant breeze comes through the screen triggering memories of past storms, past nights, past loves. the sensation of mist, like that from a waterfalls spray, is everywhere. colorado has blurred my old familiarity with rain and humidity. the feeling of swimming in a creek, beneath a waterfall, in the rain, surrounded by lush foliage and steep valley walls has all but been forgotten.



~t

fuh

wednesday brings another geomorph seminar and heaps of crap to do before the weekend. well, to be fair, i've had heaps of crap to do for weeks. reading through the last few blog entries here, i'm summarily unimpressed. my tone has been blunted and tired for a while, my accounts uninspiring... my single attempt at exposition left unfinished. the events at virginia tech making such writings seem unimportant. i didn't mean to actually write about this, but there's no reason to avoid it; it's certainly on everyone's mind. talking with friends and colleagues, reading news reports and blogs, it seems this shooting has literally been felt around the world. people wonder to themselves, 'would I have the courage to stand up, to fight, to survive?' i myself ran through the idea in my head... in each scenario the events play out like a movie but in the end the shooter lies incapacitated and i am standing. yeah right. before more students (and professors, i'm sure) waste their time on running through close-quarters combat scenarios in their heads, i suggest taking a step back.

i remember thinking on the day of the attack, 'why did it go so far? how did students and professors NOT manage to subdue Seung-Hui sooner?' more and more reports of bravery and thoughtful action continue to come out about that morning. professors barracading doors, students using belts and power-cords to fashion tourniquets stemming arterial flows. then there are the witnesses recounting Cho's expressionless, methodical and efficient manner by which so many lives ended. did he suffer from some form of psychopathy (as opposed to a more 'normal' type of depression)? were his writings any indication of real actions? was he careful and consistent with taking his medications? was Seung-Hui Cho in some sort of fugue-state, was he capable of controlling his actions? some reports make it sound like the shooter showed cold and brutal conviction, exacting death on all in his lines of sight. others describe him as tormented and confused, hesitating at first before committing wholly to oblivion.

some questions will never be answered, but i think it's clear that some important questions have been raised.

~t

sunday's deep house

di.fm is re-airing an old dj set today... it's ok, they've hosted better. i'm hanging out in my office today, continuing with these restorations, since i blew it off yesterday to ride my mountain bike. double cortado losing heat on my desk. my plant is getting kind of dusty too, i should clean it off sometime.



~t

timing

heh...

i just got into the office, bright and early, at 10:30. now, i've never been known to keep a strict schedule unless absolutely required... i prefer instead to mosey in when i like (which can be 7:30am, or 11:30am depending) and as long as i feel productive then i don't sweat the details of how many hours a day i spend sitting at a desk. the funny thing about this morning is that i happened to walk in at the same moment that my advisor walked in the opposite end of the building... it seems he holds to many of the same practices and values (including work schedules) that i do.

~t

precursor

i recently drove three thousand miles through the southwest united states. at times the personal habits, and foul odors, of four other men in the same truck made it nearly impossible to reflect in any way upon the sights surrounding us... but there were also plenty of opportunities to stare. to soak in the hues and textures of the desert. to watch the play of light across broad plains and tall ranges. to marvel at the impressive forces required to literally tear the stony crust of this planet apart. to feel so fortunate to bear witness as a guest of this earth...

~to be cont...

back from the desert

finally back from my latest trip. ten days driving through the southwest. colorado plateau, mojave desert, death valley, grand canyon... lots to see in less than two weeks. i have some great images in my head and things i want to write about, but i need a little time to sort through and pick a topic.. check back for some type of expository or creative writing on that stuff. i'm also planning my next trip to taiwan... this may. at the moment i'm thinking three weeks in country, at least half that time crawling through deeply incised drainages in a sweaty jungle looking for some good outcrop exposures... it's always a bit of an easter-egg hunt over there. I'd also (obviously) like to spend some more quality time in Taipei... one of my friends recently opened her own cafe so i'll at least have to check that out. spicy-pot and dumplings are two other things, ah yes, and 'er-ro' (goose meat), that i need to get my fix of while there ...though i think i'll leave that evening of absinthe and cigarettes and deafening music to a younger, more foolish version of myself.

~t