Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Friday, December 13, 2002

So, OK.

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. But given my schedule over the last couple of weeks I feel almost no contrition for the henious act of livng my life instead of writing about it. Things are good, though very busy. I feel as if I'm just getting one major project finished as another begins to clamour for my attention. As school winds down, hopefully my life will settle down some. The biggest demands on my time come from training, GCF and The Move. Training is at around one and a half to two hours a day at low intensity right now. I feel like I'm barely getting any miles in since the pace is so slow but I know that come race season the base miles will form the foundation of any real fitness I end up having. GCF has been really successful this semester but we've had a lot to do. I think that next semester will be a bit less hectic since I won't have a night class to teach. Finally, we are moving into our new building here. I've been living out of boxes for over 10 days since our move was pushed back twice. Finally, we are into the new building but there are still key problems that prevent me from getting in and I still have to move a bunch of the lab equipment from the physics lab to the new lab. I'll blog more about that soon.

So that's a brief update. Check back over the next couple of days. I hope to have all sorts of interesting things posted soon. I wouldn't want Haus or Pfeffer to get bored.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Thursday, December 12, 2002

A T T E N T I O N !

You've been hacked.

The forces of viciousness have found your blog to be quite stale and are posting this message in the hopes that you will take heed and at least post a humorous rant.

Don't make us come after you.

Haus & Pfeffer

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Monday, November 11, 2002

Cruisin' in the Country
The season has now officially ended. This weekend was marked by the final big ride for the year for me and it was a lot of fun. I went down to the Claxton "Criusin' in the Country" Century Weekend event in, strangely enough, Claxton, GA, the Fruitcake Capital of the World. Kathy, Amy and the amzing D-Man went down with me for a fun filled weekend of riding and relaxing. We met with Bill Hallsworth of Valdosta and some others from the central Georgia area for what is, in my opinion, the best cycling event in Georgia. Friday was spent driving down and setting up. Great conversation and hanging out as we got the tents set up, looked at the stars and planned for Saturday's ride.

On Saturday, D-Man and I hooked up with Robbie Beauchamp to see if we could turn in a good time for the 100 mile ride. For Robbie and the D-Man the goal was to earn the coveted "Century Club" cap and put in their first sub-5 hour century. For me, since I already had caps from the last two years, I was shooting for something less than 4:30 for the 100 miles. The thing was we needed a strong group to make it happen and one of our clan that we really needed, Roberto, was absent and unaccounted for. So we set off, hoping to pick up some strong riders as we went to bolster our group. At first, things went badly. Everytime we hit a rider with some promise they'd try to hook onto a wheel and then they'd get dropped. Finally, around 25 miles into the ride we began to pick up a couple of riders with some legs and our group started to grow. At the 25 mile mark we were riding a 4 hour 28 minute pace and things were looking good. At the 36 mile rest stop we caught a fast group and picked up what we thought were going to be strong riders.

At 40 miles we gaught a guy that was time trailing. He had about the smoothest pedaling motion I think I've ever seen. Butta', pure butta! He hooked up with us just as the rest of the group started looking pretty weak. It turned out that he was Tyler Hamilton's Brother-in-Law riding custom US Postal everything. He was definitely strong and seemed ready to work. So there we are and going strong. I'm taking 6 to 7 minute pulls while the group rests. When the next guy comes through, he pulls hard as well. We're fighting a bit of a headwind but our pace is definitely good. Then we hit some rollers and the strain began to show on some of the group. On one climb climb Robbie put in a big effort and Derek, the TT dude, and I are the only two who can follow. The D-Man, not having eaten well early in the ride popped off the back and was gone as well. So the three of us start working and putting distance into the rest of the riders. As we pull into the 53 mile rest stop we're given the news that we're the first century riders to this point. Cool! We decide to wait on the rest of the group as the wind is picking up and we think we'll have a better chance if we all stick together. While we're waiting several more riders come in and it looks like we'll have a 10 person strong fast group.

So regrouped we set off. We set a good pace as first but then it begins to flag. When the weaker riders go to the front, they slow the group down, trying to keep us faster riders with them to pull them in. They skip several pulls and then when we finally force them to the front they ride at 18 mph and double up across the road to keep the faster riders from going to the front. I got mad. I believe that if you want to change the pace, you go to the front and change it. So I did and off the front I went. Robbie jumped with me and we rode off but the group decided to lift their pace and chase. That was ok with me and we let them catch us thinking that everyone will get the message that we want to ride fast. However, soon after the slower guys get on the front and try to slow everything down again. I looked at my odometer, did some quick calculations and realized that the sub 4:30 is in serious danger. In fact, so was beating my time from last year. Argh!

So off I went again. At the 65 mile mark I jumped the group with no intention of slowing down. At first they only let me go grudgingly, trying to chase me down. First the gap was only 100 feet; then 200; then 500 and then the fight goes out of everyone but Robbie. They give up trying to chase and I'm solo, off the front. While the ride isn't a race, I really like the idea of being the first century rider finish so I went hard. I rode at lactate threshold for the next 90 minutes but still just missed my goal by 6 minutes. Still, I beat my previous year's mark by 11 minutes. An excellent ride indeed. Robbie came in about 2 minutes behind me and Derek was third. The D-Man finished the 100 miles in 4:45 and the 105 in 5 hours while pulling a couple of other guys in. Excellent rides by all. The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent telling glory stories, sitting in the hot tubs provided by an event sponsor (I'm not making this up) and drinking a couple of cold adult beverages. Bill did the century in 5:35; a full hour less than the year before. Kathy and Amy rode 30 miles, a PR for Amy who was totally stoked about riding that far.

A great weekend and a great ride. If you like to ride and want the experience of a truly great ride that totally caters to all the riders, Claxton is the place. Mark your calendars for Vet's Day weekend next year. We'll see you there...just look for the cacti!

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Thursday, October 31, 2002

Clueless

Ok, so I haven't ranted in a while but I think it may be time to go off a bit. What ever happened to the idea that there is a world outside of person's own little bubble. I am amazed at how unaware many people are as to what's going on around them. An example is going to WallyWorld. I mean I'm navigating my buggy (that's what they call them down here in the south...a buggy...not a cart...a buggy) down some isle of shiny junk when someone pulls out of side isle right in front of me. Now I recognize that this sort of thing is going to happen from time to time. What gets me is that the person doesn't recognize that I'm there and then stops, effectively blocking the entire lane while they examine the shopping equivalent of their belly button lint. A softly cleared throat or excuse me does nothing to remedy the situation. The person is totally in their own little cosmosphere receiving no input from the rest of reality. Usually I find myself amused the first time this happens. What gets to me is when it happens for the fifth, six and seventh time. I'm not making this up. Everytime we subject ourselves to the mind-wrenching experience of 10,00 sq. feet of consumerism this occurs. Why are people so clueless?

In some ways it's worse here at the school. If I attempt to walk to a class in an enclosed hallway at any pace slightly greater than glacial crawl I inevitably encounter a couple of students walking side by side talking about the lastest episode in the residence halls. Repeated attempts to gain their attention only results in an uncomprehending stare. Worse is the prospect of going up and down stairs. Frequently you get people who decide to stop and deliver entire Shakespearian monologues to their companions while the traffic snare of others trying to get somewhere piles up around them. Only after several people push around the pair that are stuck like pieces of human cholestorol to the academic artery do they begin to realize that their prolonged mental vacation has the traffic helicopters circling overhead warning of 45 minute delays and road rage of homeric proportions. I understand that most teenagers think the world revolves round them but we seem to have moved to idea that there is no world around them. The world consists only of their experience. I'm sure a philosopher would have a field day with the implications of that.

If you have any insights as to why this has happened, feel free to help me come to grips with this.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

LabTime Fun

I'm hanging out with my Physical Science class while they learn about motion. They're moving in front of the motion detectors and there are a lot of smiles and a lot of laughter. Regular students, learning physics, having fun. Who would have thought it. A big part of the fun is due to the computers and interfaces that allow them to graph their motion in live time. They get to see what their moving produces without all of the math getting in the way. This stuff, combined with a simulation package that we'll use in a couple of days, will get them feeling good about motion. Hopefully, they'll begin to get an intuitive feel for distance, position, speed and velocity. In time they won't think it's quite so much fun but the happy faces are good right now.

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Tuesday, October 29, 2002

Digging Around in the Greek

Over the last week or so I've begun digging around in the Greek that makes up the Bible and I'm finding the exercise really interesting. The motivation for the study is a devotional I write for the Christian college group I'm the Faculty Advisor for. A couple of weeks ago I started to work through Chapter 12 of Romans (Therefore, offer yourselves as living sacrifices...). As I got to verse 9 I relaize I really wanted to know the meaning of a specific work in the text. So I went to my favorite on-line greek resource, www.greekbible.com, to check it out. Well one thing led to another and all of the sudden I'm retranslating the text because I don't think the NIV really gets at what Paul is trying to say. Now, I'm workign my way through the restof the chapter seeing what I can find.

While I'm not ready to say that the NIV or some other translation has gotten it wrong, I do wonder how much they took context into account when they put things together. Now, I'm not a linguist or a Biblical scholar or anything like that so you probably shouldn't put a lot of stock in anything I say, but I'm really beginning to wonder if some of these guys got it right. When I look at what Paul wrote, I see that he's got a lot more going on that the translation seems to convey. It's hard to give an example right now but I think I'm going to have to sit down with a Ancient Greek-English dictionary and work through the entire passage to see what I come up with. It's almost like there are two paths Paul could have been wanting his readers to take with the passage. Probably he really wanted us to consider both paths but that feeling's totally lost when the Greek gets turned into English. There also seems to be a lot of wordplay in the writing that is lost as well. Its hard to say though as the original Greek is all in capitals with no spaces or punctuation (you'd think a culture as sharp as the Greeks would have invented the space, of course you'd also think the Romans could have invented real numbers and a zero but they missed that boat too).

Really, really interesting stuff.

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Thursday, October 24, 2002

Uh-Oh

Blogger/BlogSpot seems to have issues again. Actually it seems to be BlogSpot now. I can post but any changes I make seem to be not making it to the web page. Hmmm....this could become annoying.

Whoops...things seem to be better now. Weird.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Back to Where I was Before

Hey, Hey, Hey! As you will notice, things here at Run the Race central are back up to snuff. Thanks to the fine work of my wife, the comments section and the links are up for your browsing and commenting pleasure. One of these days I'm even going to get around to making the archives available and you'll be able to relive some of this forum's finest moments.

A brief weekend update for those here in the central Georgia area. If you get a chance to visit Dauset Trails, take the opportunity. If you get a chance to take your mountain bike along for the trip, do that as well. If you can take your wife, I also highly recommend that. Kids? I'm not experienced along those lines, but I'm sure they would be fine too. Pets? Those are right out. Anyways, the place is really, really nice. The mountain biking is as fine as any you'll find in the area. The trails wind through some amazingly beautiful real estate, right up there with anything I hiked through in Oregon or Colorado. Throw in the wonderful fact that there is a trail for every skill level and you understand why I want to go back on a weekly basis. As with all of my MTB rides I did bleed a bit and I did ride through some water (I got off the trail unintentionally) and I had a great time. Top it all off with some great eats in High Falls and Saturday was just about as perfect a day as I can ask for. The only drawback was flatting out the front tire on my bike without a spare tube but that was near the end of the day and so wasn't so bad.

On a related note, the new Specialized M4 Stumpjumper is a dream. Wow. I don't think I've ever owned the top of the line anything before and I can see how people might get addicted. Especially if you can get it at a middle of the line price. Kudos to Nate at Bike Tech of Macon for the recommendation and the setup. At 21 lbs, the bike has handled everything I've thrown at it. When I finally get decent at riding the thing, I'll be "The Monster". Actually, I've been thinking about a cycling nickname. All the greats have one. Lance is "Big Tex", Eddie was "The Cannibal", Pantani goes by "Il Pirata". The problem is that you're supposed to wait until someone gives you a nick. I don't feel like waiting. I like the name, "The Fox" I think. I like the chase of a good bike race, especially when I'm being chased. I like running through the woods all fast and quiet and strong. I like that I can be cunning and clever. I like the lyrics in the Nickel Creek tune, "The Fox", where the fox sneeks away with the prize and feasts. I like wearing and riding red and silver and black. Who knows, maybe someone will bestow me the nick.

Finally, I think I may need to change the name of my road bike from The Steed to Frankenbike. I've mixed and matched some many different parts I think it's starting to get scary. I've upgraded the triple ring to a double. The new carbon fiber fork from Roberto is weave black and is from a Bianchi frame (labels taped over). I've got one silver pedal and one red one from two different sets due to breakage. I've got a black stem attached to a silver bar. I wonder if I need to hook the bike up to a couple of lightning rods to fuse it all back together. The amazing thing though is that the bike still has the same soul, just lighter and faster. Maybe Frankensteed then.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Friday, October 18, 2002

Template Woes

OK, so I've been gone from blog land now longer than the Democratic party has spoken with a coherent voice in National politcs. Well, maybe not that long, but a long time anyways. It seems that Blogspot, the fine host of this collection of rants and ramblings, decided to hate my wonderful template. I'm not sure why it decided this, but it did. This state of emnity between the template code and the host rendered me unable to post. You gotta hate it when that happens. Worse than unsightly nose hair actually. So, I decide to troubleshoot the problem and when I try to load the template to poke around with it, blogger hates it even worse. I mean, at least blogspot will continue to show my old template with my old posts. I just can't add anything new. Blogger, the place that actually lets me write and modify things, won't even load up the template to begin with. My template and Blogger were acting like Mathra Stewart and Oprah in a "Good Thing" death match over napkin folding patterns (only with fewer fake smiles between the jabs and barbs). So, Blogger offers me the alluring option of choosing a new template. This is exciting! Like a new car, only cheaper and without all those sleepless nights that come with financing worries. So I choose that option and am given dozens of options to pick from. It's really like getting a new car now, lots of different makes and models in zippy colors and beautiful lines. Well, actually, most of them were pretty ugly. Big blocks of color seem to be "in" right now. I thought the Bauhuas movement had died stylistically but I guess no one told the folks who run Blogger that. So maybe my choices where not as varied as I had thought but surely I'd find something new and exciting to breathe new life into my blog. As I looked over the offerings though, lo and behold, what do I come across but my old template. And you know what? I still liked it the best. It just fit me. I mean, it's not what I would design for me but hey, picking one of theirs meant a lot less work for me. So, I'm like good to go and so I do. Click on the template and things are fixed until I notice that I've lost my links to other blogs. And then I notice I've lost my comments thingy too. Bummer. Oh well, at least I'm able to post again. I'll work out the rest soon. For now, enjoy the new and freely flowing content.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Thursday, October 10, 2002

Odds and Ends
It’s been quite a while since I posted a missive to this well intentioned but somewhat misguided forum. I don’t really have an excuse other than to say that life has a way of getting busy from time to time.

A Mile(anhour)stone
Those of you who are either bored or mentally derainged enough to read this site on a regular basis will recall that I set a goal of riding a time trial at 25 mph. A couple of weeks ago, I took an important step in that direction. After a month of focused time trial training I went out and tested my fitness using the same method as Lance Armstrong. I rode two three mile time trials at maximum effort with a ten minute recovery period in between. The first (outbound) stretch resulted in a 25 mph average. After the recovery time, the second (inbound) stretch was ridden at an average of 26.2 mph. While these distances are short for a real time trial (usually between 7-10 miles for Cat 5 riders) I’m pretty encouraged by the speed.

Healing Slowly
Another update is that I am healing up from the injuries suffered during my recent foray into mountain bike racing. Progress has been slow with my rib just now not hurting everytime I roll over in bed. Just a word of advice: Try to avoid cracking a rib when doing those things that seem like they’d be so much fun before you do them. I have gotten back on the MTB and had a good ride at Camp Thunder but I need to go slow. I felt like I had set my recovery back a week from all the pounding I took.

Hurricane Watching
With all the tropical activity over the last couple of weeks, I feel as if I’ve become a hurricane junkie. First Hanna stopped by for a somewhat soggy visit. Apparently, word got out that we weren’t very hospitable here in Central Georgia (at least as far as large spinning conglomerations of tropical energy are concerned) as Isodore played coy soon after. Finally, Lili almost completely ignored us for the more inviting environs of Louisiana. During this time though, I spent enough time looking at NOAA forecasts, NWS prediction models and NHC discussion synopses that I think I should earn an honorary degree or something. Now that things have settled down, I’m wondering what on Earth I’m going to do with all that time.

Halloween Costumes
As Halloween approached, my wife and some of our students have begun the yearly quest for a really cool costume. While observing this activity with only somewhat restrained amusement, I have begun to wonder what I shall be for this most overdressed of occasions. When I ask people what they think, their first response is something like, “You could go as a cyclist.” I thought the point was to pretend to be something you’re not. My wife and I toyed with the idea of going as Christian and Satine from Moulin Rouge. I thought that it might be cool to do the poor Bohemian writer schtick. Kathy, however, found a really cool bat mask so that idea is now out. I could look to try to do the very ultrahip Matrix look, complete with black hair dye and long, dark trenchcoat chic. I’m afraid that no one will get it though. The Matrix, at least until Reloaded comes out, was so 1999. So I’m at a bit of a loss. Whatever shall I be? Feel free to leave helpful/nonsarcastic suggestions in the “unburden yourself” section of our program.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Thursday, September 12, 2002

Life with the ‘Pod

My birthday gift arrived the other day. The big day was a couple of weeks ago but due to technical difficulties the gift from my wife was delayed. Boy, was it worth the wait. A 10 Gig iPod from the Mothership is an awesome thing to behold. The pictures on Apple’s website don’t do it justice. It’s smaller than you think it will be and the industrial design to totally Apple ice and chrome. It is an even more awesome thing to hear. Clear, crisp and all that. But what really bakes my noodle is the implied functionality. I mean the whole 2000 songs in my pocket thing is cool but who really needs 2000 songs in their pocket. While my Jazz collection alone has more songs that that, I don’t think I need them all in my pocket. What’s really cool is the interface with iTunes, Apple’s mp3 software. I can set stuff up in iTunes and when I connect the ‘Pod, all the changes are updated (though I can turn that feature off if I want). The place where this is best for me is in creating playlists. I can put together a set songs I want to hear and then take it over to the ‘Pod. This is really great. I can have a set for winding down, a set for spinning on the bike, a set for a hard workout on the bike, a set for dancing around the house like a goofy loon. You get the picture. Changing a playlist is easy in iTunes. So if I want to change my one hour spin set because I’m tired of hearing the songs, it takes about 5 minutes.

Add to this the fact that the thing is a 10 Gig portable hard drive with firewire and internal power and I get all slobbery. The song thing is what I’ll use right off but the possibilities of the drive boggle my mind. Every document for every class I’ve ever taught in my pocket. Quickly transferable to any machine. Add an email/wireless networking capacity to this thing and it gets truly scary. Network admins should all have one of these. Everything you need to diagnose a problem on a machine, set up a new machine, update a machine and do it while listening to your favorite tunes. What a concept. This thing should be a case study in design at every engineering college in the country. Of course, so should most of Apple’s products. Both good and bad. The Newton, an idea before it’s time. The Powerbook 5300, which caught on fire though Apple denied that it did and wouldn’t replace the bad units. The iMac, which was the first really consumer oriented computer that all the PC manufacturers are still trying to understand. The post-5300 Powerbooks, the first computers to become status symbols in Hollywood and on Wall Street. The iPod follows in the groundbreaking footsteps of Apple’s greatest successes. It meets a perceived while defining an entirely new set of operational parameters. If there weren’t enough reasons to buy an Apple, the iPod should sway your mind. This is the sort of thing the Wintel zombies dream of and get angry about not having. Apple has done some similar software things with iMovie but if they ever create a video camera/iMovie package that is as cool as the iPod/iTunes thing I think they’ll end up owning the market for home video.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Monday, September 09, 2002

What a Weekend

This last weekend has been fuller than most on many levels. It all began with Kathy giving my birthday gift, an iPod. It's very cool. I'll blog more about it later but it's a really cool thing for a lot of reasons. On Saturday, we went down to Macon to pick up my new mountain bike, a Specialized M4 Stumpjumper Pro. This bike is basically the same on used to win the MTB World Championships a couple of years ago. It weighs 21.5 lbs which is absurd for a mountain bike. While I was picking it up I dropped off my road bike to have a carbon fiber fork put on it that someone is giving me to try out. So, me, my wife and our bikes head over to the Georgia Children's Home for a bit of a test spin. I've ridden over there a couple of times and I did OK on the old Urban Assault Bike. Kathy decides to beg off a ride after her stomach starts to bother her so it's me and the Stumpjumper. I learned something very quickly; the bike was too fast for me. Corners I had had no problems on on the old UAB I was now struggling to get through. That's how I figured out I was going too fast. At one point I grabbed the front break a bit too hard and all of the sudden I'm Superman for about 15 feet and then me and the ground get acquainted. So does the handlebar and my knee. I would limp for the rest of the day. Still, by the end of the ride I think I've got a feel for things.

Shift to Sunday. It was time for penance. I skipped church and went to ride in my first MTB race ever. After the crash I had decided to ride beginners class. It turned out to be a good choice. In the race I crashed hard twice. The first time something hit me in the left side and knocked the wind half out of me. I thought I had punctured a lung but for some reason I jumped on the bike, kept going and it got better (say that in your best Monty Python accent). Now I think I just bruised a rib but boy does it hurt. The second one was the spectaculr one. It was good enough to make the OLN highlight reels. I was on the BMX part of the course and I took the second jump a little too fast and I endoed. Right onto my head. I hear something crack and I knew that was bad. Confirmation came shortly after I came to rest, about 30 feet from my bike. From the observation deck a voice cries out, "Dude, are you OK?!?" I'm not making this up, really. You have to say it in you best Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure voice.

So, there I am, flat on my back wondering if I'm not paralyzed. That's when I feel my hydration pack against my back and realize I can feel everything down to my toes. I can't see straight though. I quick fix of the unbroken Bolle sunglasses takes care of that. Strap the helmet back on as a sit up. Something feels funny as I do that but no time. I stand up and get a round of applause from the crowd (my adoring fans) and off I go in search of the bike. When I get there and get the chain back on I grab the handlebars to mount and that's when I realized that something was amiss. My right ring finger didn't care to have much pressure applied to it and was complaining loudly about it. "Screw it," I thought and off I went. Another 5 miles and back to the finish to complete the race. I took 9th out of about 35 in my age/class group. I even racked up a few points in the GAP MTB series. My helmut was shattered thoguh. Had it not been for the plastic cover, the styrofoam parts would have exploded off my head when I landed on it. Also, had it not been for the helmet, I would likely be eating through a tube right now while the doctor checked to see if I had come out of my coma. If you ride, wear a lid. No excuses.

Anyway, I did ok, but my body hurts pretty badly.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

100 miles and the Call

It was going to be easy. The legs were good, I felt strong. I had made a good run up in Brooks with a small group. In Savannah there would be 1800. Make the split over the bridge with about 75 other hammers and then sit in for most of the next 4 hours. You see, that was the goal. One hundred miles in four hours on a flat course with only one major obstacle.

Last year I didn’t make the split over the Savannah bridge and ended up in the second group. The bridge is a killer climb. About 1 mile up a 6-10% grade. Last year I tried to stay with the lead group and my heart nearly exploded. Coming down the other side I tried to bridge up to the fast group but I got stuck in the middle and dangled like a badly used modifier until my lungs burned in chest and my quads felt like overcooked pasta. I was then picked up by the second group and after some recovery time I was able to drive the group hard and finish in 4 hours and 30 minutes. I was pleased with my ride but I felt that if I had made the fast group I would have come in with them at 4 hours. So that became a goal.

Fast forward a year. After a year of heavy riding, solid training and getting dropped by the fast groups at the Griffin Century and the Cartersville Century I felt I had worked out the bugs. I could ride the speed but I needed to learn to eat on the bike. Actually I needed to learn to drink. Cytomax specifically. When I ride I get so into the process that I forget to take in calories. That’s OK when I ride my typical 30-40 mile training rides but when I did a century I would start running out of steam at about 50 miles or so. Finally, at the Brooks century I put it all together. I ate well the night before the ride. I drank well during the ride. I was invincible. We did 101 miles in 4 hours and 19 minutes. I drove the group at several points and I felt good. Things looked good for Savannah.

The trip started out rough. It took us forever to get out of town and then we almost couldn’t find a room at the Inn. Still, I arrived at the century ready to rumble. That’s when it started raining. No worries though. I like riding in the rain though I wasn’t too excited about the thought of being in a pack of cyclists with wet brakes for four hours. That’s when the nervousness really set in. I set up with the folks from the Bicycles Unlimited and waited for the ride to start. With a crack of the gun we set off for the bridge. The monster comes only 1.5 miles into the ride. Basically it was like sprinting from the gun. Climbing the bridge is always cool. You can’t describe it, you just have do it to understand. This year I was good. I didn’t go too hard at the beginning but just built until I was passing most of the other riders and I was set up on the back of the lead group for the descent into South Carolina. At the top it was, “Houston, we are go for launch.”

I was on and now came the easy part. Stay alert for the next 3 hours 45 minutes and not miss a split or get caught up in a crash. For an hour things went well. There were a couple of scary moments but things were going according to plan. The legs were good. I felt strong. That’s went the problem came up. I had to pee. Bad. The fast group doesn’t take a pee break. Ever. I couldn’t wait so off the back I went and into the woods. Three minutes for the pit stop. The problem is three minutes is over a mile on a bike. The group had been going easy so I had decided to risk it. I was strong and I knew I could make up the time. Off and back on and the chase began. I could see the lead group about a mile up. I started nailing the distance back. I was doing well until a turn from the north to the west. The group turned and got the wind at their back and they were gone. An hour passed, then two and I knew it was a solo effort and 4 hours was a pipe dream. ‘I coulda been somebody Uncle Jimmy! I coulda been a contender!’ As the fast group shelled people out the back I would catch the poor souls and drop them but I could never catch the flyers. I finished in 4 hours 30 minutes again. Bummer. Still though I was stronger than last year and nobody could hold my wheel. I rode 75 miles alone and spent most of the distance at 80+% of my max heart rate.

It was a good ride but it was also disappointing to miss out on the 4 hour goal because of the call of nature. Some guys told me that I now need to learn to “answer the phone” while still riding. Hmmmmmmm. I’m a pretty modest guy and the thought of letting it all hang out during a spin is a bit...ummmm...well...you know....

So, God willing, there’s next year and another effort. Hopefully the rain will stay away and I’ll be able to hang in there. Until then, there’s more training.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Monday, August 26, 2002

Back to the Books
School has begun again in earnest. The students are back and the work has begun. As is usual for this time of the semester most of my students are a little freaked out by the format of my courses. For the most part, the relaxation of a lot of the structure they are used to is to blame for the stress. I tend to run classes that are a bit more open and non-traditional than many instructors. My students are most often simultaneously excited and agitated by the change. They like the opportunity they have in a less structured class but they don't like not having that safety net. Mostly what it comes down to is that they are afraid that they won't measure up to my strandards. What they don't quite get yet is that my standards aren't about getting some artificial number but about understanding a process. No one really cares in the "real world" (or anywhere else for that matter) about your ability to match an already known number. That's actually not that hard to teach someone. High school juniors can generally be taught to match numbers of the incentive offered is sufficiently lucrative. The harder thing to do is to allow someone to discover their own creativity. My students aren't used to being allowed to be creative while still meeting a standard of excellence. Usually, being creative has meant a lack of standards while standards have meant that things are approached in a "cookbook" kind of way. What I try to get them to understand is that their work has to be rigorous and illuminating but that there isn't a specific way to do that. The hope is that they will discover what works best for them and with any luck they will. Actually, there is a lot more structure built into the course than they think and they will find it but for right now the course structure seems pretty shaky. Thinking back on nearly every job I've ever started I recall wondering the same things my students are. Probably, the best part of the experience in my class is working through that uncertainty and finding that you have things to offer that have value in their originality and creativity.

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Wednesday, August 07, 2002

The Ten Best Rock and Roll Albums of the 80’s

This is bound to be a controversial topic. Whenever someone writes a”best of” list there’s always another opinion. That’s how personal taste works. Still though, there’s a lot to be said for taking the time to think about it because you really have to go beyond personal preference to look at a piece of art’s lasting influence. Questions have to be asked. Questions like, “Where did this come from?”, “Why is it important?”, “How does it capture a feeling or a mood or a movement of it’s time and carry it into immortality”, “What new thing does it introduce that remains beyond it’s short moment in the pop culture sun?”. I’ve tried to use these questions to frame my approach. One disclaimer is in order here. I wasn’t much into the punk movement into the 80’s. In many ways Punk Rock rescued the 80’s from disco and all that surrounded it. It returned a rawness and energy to rock and roll that the overproduction of the late 70’s had stolen. What this means is that some very deserving albums aren’t on my list, most notably the Clash’s London Calling. Rolling Stone named this work as the best album of the 80’s and I am not inclined to disagree. However, I don’t own the album and I haven’t ever heard the whole then so I can’t include it. Finally, if you’re looking for a place to begin the experience the music of the 80’s I suggest that this is a fine place to start but a bad place to end. Without further ado, here’s the list in no particular order (except maybe the first).

Dream of the Blue Turtles-Sting: This album was a lightning bolt from off the radar screen. Authentic jazz mixed with rock and roll. Extraordinarily intelligent lyrics. Time signatures never used before in a pop song. No other album like it was created during the decade. It was unique and it help restore jazz in America. Branford Marsalis was accused of selling out by playing on this album as was Omar Hakim. Instead they showed people that you could still swing. Sting’s lyrics are amazing. Listening to the album was like getting a lesson in the history of western civilization. As intellectual as the album is, the songs are so catchy that you scarcely realize that you’re being asked to expand your horizons. Who else but Sting could steal a piece of classical music, cast it in a rock/jazz framework, write a powerful tune about Cold War tensions and not sound pretentous. (A brief note here: One of the best soundtracks of the 80’s was “Russia House” where Marsalis continued to reintroduce America to it’s greatest artistic creation.)

Graceland-Paul Simon: This was the introduction of world music to the mass audience and they (we) ate it up. I can still remember listening to the harmonies of Ladysmith Black Mambozo and being just totally blown away. Simon, like Sting, is an excellent lyricist but you can tell that the music flows from some spring deep inside that was filled listening to the ethnically rich music in the streets of New York. He had the courage to go searching for the headwaters of that music and the journey led him to Africa and South America. He believed enough in the music to see that a good tune was good whether it was sung on the shores of some distant continent or in America. The follow-up album “Rhythm of the Saints” could be considered a continuation of this album.

Joshua Tree/Rattle and Hum-U2: I group these two albums together because they act like bookmarks of U2’s rise to mainstream popularity in America. The tunes are emotionally powerful. In a way it was as if this psuedo-punk band had risen above the limitations of their musical style and had captured the essence of the roots of rock and roll. Maybe only a rebellious Irish band could understand the emotions that had given rise to the gospel influenced black music of the sixties. Like the Stones, they found the blues and it all seemed to make sense in the music they wrote and recorded.

Thriller-Michael Jackson: While Mr. Jackson may have taken a leave from reality following this album, the album itself is breathtaking. It is hard to relay the impact the album had almost 20 years after it was released. It single-handedly saved African-American popular music in America. All hip-hop/R&B music of today owes it’s existence to this album. Billie Jean may be the most dancable piece of pop music ever written. The driving rhythm of Bad, Thriller and Billie Jean propel this album with such a force that you can’t help but want to move. It is visceral music. It’s not really like you’re really down on the street but that the essence of the street has been distilled and captured in the music. You feel the anger and the fear and the bravado. It compels you to respond. Jackson would later do a video with a Westside Story theme but that feeling really comes from this album.

Paradise Theater-Styx: This was the greatest album of a great bar band because it captured a feeling in America at the close of the 70’s and beginning of the 80’s. The country was in recession, people had lost their jobs, money was tight. There were those who claimed that America was done as a dominant power in the world both politically and economically. This album is a rallying cry that said that while we may be down, we aren’t out. The message of hope is powerful in what may have been one of the first concept albums by an American band.

90125-Yes: This is the album that Asia should have been able to do two years earlier but couldn’t. Straight ahead rock from some of the best musicians to have ever played the genre. Jon Anderson’s voice is so distinctive and the tightness of the band so instinctive that the album has an energy not often found. This album may have the best piece of rock a capella singing ever.

Faith-George Michael: Maybe the best vocal album of the decade. Michael’s voice combined with some excellent grooves makes for some of the best pop music ever made. This album is, in some ways, the 80’s “Pet Sounds”. It captures so many different essences of what pop music was in the decade and still managed to sound remarkably fresh. The album had a funk to it that shocked a lot of people who thought Michael could only do “Wham” stuff. Topically it dealt with Sex in the time when AIDS was a huge topic, drug addiction and dependency in relationships. Yet, everything still fit within three minutes and it all rhymed. The album appealed to huge numbers of listeners from love struck teenie-boppers to 50 something big band era Sinatra fans.

End of the Innocence-Don Henley: While the music here is good, it’s the lyrics that make the album so memorable. Henley writes with such insight and clarity that you can’t help but wonder how he knew exactly how you felt about the topic he’s singing about. He captures the frustration many had with the Reagan years and the “Decade of Greed”. His song “Forgiveness” could well have been an anthem for many in the 90’s who were left holding the tatters of relationships from the past. In many ways, this album is the anti-grunge album. It deals with a lot of the same topics but from the perspective of a tired adult looking back at the wreckage. Grunge will be about the anger and isolation of the young victims of the “Me” generation’s pursuit of wealth and fame.

Strong Persuader-Robert Cray: This album reminded America that the blues is where it all started. I think that “Smoking Gun” is one of only two blues videos ever shown on MTV (the other being the pairing of U2 and BB King in “When Love Comes to Town” from Rattle and Hum). The album is a strong statement about authentic music from an almost lost tradition. No better introduction to the blues exists. That’s not to say that better blues albums don’t exist (though there aren’t many) but Cray delivers the goods in an unapologetic, unashamed way.

Synchronicity-The Police: Musically the album is brilliant and lyrically the album is deeper than 99% of all albums made. You just about needed a degree in psychology to understand a lot of this album. This is also one of the darkest albums made during the decade. It was an antidote to all of the Debbi Gibson like fluff that came out of the pop marketing machine of the time.

I’ve left out a large number of really good bands. Groups and individuals like Steely Dan, Tears for Fears, Def Leppard, The Alan Parsons Project, Midnight Oil, The Talking Heads, Duran Duran, Phil Keaggy, Brian Wilson, Stevie Ray Vaughn and many others deserve honorable mention. Unfortunately there’s not enough room. So, start here and go exploring. There’s a lot of good stuff that you won’t find on the 80’s flashback stations.

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Tuesday, July 30, 2002

Lance, Part II

The Tour de France is over. The pinnacle event of cycling is in the books, though like many sports, the season continues with a number of very important events. For the fourth year in a row Lance Armstrong has won the event. His time was a somewhat dominating 7:17 faster than Joseba Beloki, the second place finisher (about 6 km in terms of distance at the Tour's average speed). In winning four of this year's Tour’s stages Lance has increased his total number of career stage wins to 15. The number of days he has worn the malliot jaune (the yellow jersey of the race leader) is now in excess of 40. He is now one of only three riders to have won the Midi Libere, the Duaphine Libre and the Tour all in the same year and he is also only one of three riders to have won four consecutive tours. The other two riders to have achieved both of these feats are cycling legends Eddy “The Cannibal” Mercxx and Miguel "Big Mig" Indurain. Both Mercxx and Indurain would go on to win five attempts of the Grande Bouche (the Big Circle as the French call the Tour).

The Nike ads run during OLN’s coverage of the Tour as well as ESPN’s updates captured an essence of Lance’s inspiration. Each message spoke to a theme: hope, perseverance, wisdom, and courage. Four qualities for to mark four Tours won. When I think of these virtues I find that the person that pursues and carries these things will find the deep joy the ancient Greek philosophers thought was the purpose of man. He or she will naturally live humbly and hold God in the proper awe as the writer of Ecclesiastes suggests as the one purpose of life. That person’s life will be marked by the incomprehensible peace the apostle Paul claims.

I’m sure Lance doesn’t have these things all the time. He’s a human being just like the rest of us. But I do think his experiences have given him a clearer vision of what these things are and what they mean. Facing death strips away the superficial, lays bare that which is truly important. Robert Fulgham once wrote a creed about what was powerful in his life that ended in the claim that he believed that love is stronger than death. I agree with him in that. I’d like to look at the four virtues above in the same way.

I believe that one act of courage is more powerful than a thousand petty slights. The slights are forgotten but courage resonates through the ages.

I believe that hope is more powerful than despair. Hope gives strength to the weak and failing and keeps the lost searching. Even the smallest hope will overcome despair.

Wisdom is a lamp in the darkness of ignorance and hate. I used to think that it was knowledge but knowledge is just a tool, though a powerful one. It is wisdom that lifts us out of the mire of smallness and resentment.

Finally, I believe that perseverance will overcome failure. We all fail. In fact, I believe we learn more from failure than we often do from success, but only if we persevere. When we carry on, we are rewarded with each of the other three virtues. Yet without the others, how can we persevere?

So again, Lance is an inspiration (through the auspices of Nike’s marketing department) to me. The story of what he does and how he lives challenges me to reevaluate what I take for granted and what I do each day. Not in relation to his accomplishments, but in light of his guiding values: courage, hope, wisdom and perseverance.

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Friday, July 19, 2002

Lance
What a guy. Unless you've been under a rock for the last few days you have probably heard that Lance Armstrong is leading the world's most grueling athletic endeavor, the mythical Tour de France. He took the yellow jersey yesterday on the climb up La Mongie. But to say it that way to to completely hide the magnitude of his accomplishment. To win at La Mongie Lance had to climb more than a mile into the Pyrrenian skies in a mere 10 miles. The average grade was 7%. How steep is 7%? The average interstate on-ramp is about 4%. At 6% they tell trucks to gear way down going up hill and to make sure they've checked their brakes before going downhill. I climb 7% grades occasionally. One hill like that I call "The Hill of Death". I take people I want to make suffer there. If you're one of my students and you want to earn my respect you ride the Hill of Death with me and you suffer...badly. Going down the Hill of Death I usually hit 40 mph. The Hill of Death is 0.75 miles long and I feel really good if I can ride it at over 12 mph. Lance rode the length of 12 Hills of Death and he did it at over 15 mph. If you've never ridden a bike up a hill like that, you have no idea how amazing what Lance did was.

Guess what? He did it again today. He won his second mountain stage in a row. When I do HoD intervals I have to recover the next day and ride easy. Lance goes out and decimates the competition. By the way, did you know that to get to the mountains Lance rode 1000 miles in 10 days? It's unbelievable. Today I did something I've never done before, I rode 1000 miles in 20 days. If you read my last blog post, you'll see how hard it was for me.

To top it all off Lance is a total sportsman. He credits his team at every turn. He lauds and praises the accomplishments of other riders in the race. He's generous and humble while not belittling himself. Not bad for a guy that 6 years ago had less than 10% chance of living though testicular cancer much less ever riding a bike for a living. He's an inspiration for me, a hero. He may crack on the Ventoux in two days or he may bury his competitors. Either way his courage calls me to greater heights in how I live. It challenges my fear and mocks the limitations I place on myself.

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Tuesday, July 09, 2002

Worn Out
When I went to bed last night, I had every intent of today being a normal day. Get up at 5:45 am, ride 20 miles, teach class and do office hours, ride 30 miles, tape the tour stage and work on my MSU course and then spend an evening with Kathy. When I woke up I relaized that my body had other ideas. It was tired. Bone tired. The 450 miles in the last eight days have added up, especially the 100 miles last Saturday. My body was feeling sick so today has become a rest day. No riding and everyhting else low key. What is usually ride time is, for today, nap time.

As my wife will tell you, days like this are hard for me. I like to go full throttle, especially when it comes to riding. If I don't take a day off, I'll dig a deep exhaustion hole for myself and I'll have to lose even more time and training later. When I think about it, I'm pretty sure that life is the same way. There are days when you go all out, days where you ride easy and days where you just have to take some time off. I look around and I see people who go all out all the time. You can see the strain on them as they won't slow down. They keep digging themselves deeper and deeper until they grind to a halt. After that, they're just going through the motions. All they do is try to get through each day and dred the next. There is a time for everything and when you get exhausted you need to rest. The world will go on without you for a short time. Friends will help out and everything will get done. That scares some people. They begin to think they're not needed or that no one will care about them and their contribution. The truth is, though, is that people will appreciate them more when they are of good cheer and when they are centered.

So its rest and recovery for me today. Tomorrow I'll be back on the bike putting in the miles and enjoying the road. Until then I'll enjoy the view from the front porch.

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Monday, June 24, 2002

Keeping the Rubber Side Down

Well, race weekend is over and I got through it OK. Actually I did better than OK. I managed to take 4th in the time trial and 18th in the road race. More than that though, I met all of my goals. I rode the time trial at lactate threshold and set a personal record with a speed of 24 mph over the 8.5 mile course. In the road race I really animated the race. On the second lap I spent ten miles on a solo breakaway. I moved up and down the peloton with ease and I sprinted well into the finish. Most importantly, I kept the rubber side of the bike down.

The interesting thing was when I called my Dad. I told him about the race and he was really excited for me. But he was perplexed too. I had done OK resultswise but I hadn't won. How could I feel so good about things? He didn't see it terms of goals but in terms of results. If I didn't win then, well, didn't I lose? Everytime I think about it I have to smile. Then I have to think about why I'm smiling and that's when I realize that the weekend is a metaphor.

Life is the same way. There's two ways to look at life. You can count wins and look at everything else as loses or you can look at it in terms of goals and progress. A year ago I could barely ride 8.5 miles solo at 20 mph and now I can ride it at 24 and that's on a tough course with wind. Yeah I lost but man what a great way to lose. I could say, "Yeah well 24's Ok and all but there were guys who rode better than that. I really suck." Or I could say, "Man, one year ago I couldn't have dreamed of doing this and here I am and I've just done it. Cool!" There was a guy in grad school I knew that had the first attitude about everything anyone ever did. He wondered why he couldn't get to sleep at night.

When we look at things in terms of win/lose we get ourselves in trouble. It all comes from comparing ourselves to others. No matter how hard we try to be objective we always find someone else who we think has done more than we have and then we look at ourselves as losers. Man, what a bummer. Lance Armstrong rides the bike a whole lot better than I ever will, than I ever would have if I had started racing when I was 15. Does that mean I'm a loser as a bike racer? Well, if I compare myself to Lance and measure my accomplishments by his, yeah I am. But if I set my own goals and use Lance as an inspiration that a person who works hard can achieve what he or she sets out to do then I don't think of things in terms of winning and losing. I can take joy in my successes and I can learn from my failures. When you think of it, there's probably a little of each in most of what we do. Could I have done things better in the time trial or the bike race? Sure. But I can learn from those and get faster and I can have a lot of fun getting there. What's my next goal? Watch out 25mph...it's the new holy grail.

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Friday, June 21, 2002

Friday Evening and Musings about the Bike

Its Friday evening and my lovely wife and I have chosen to spend a quiet evening at home. Quiet, that is, except for Elvis and Moxie's talking to herself. Still though, even with the chatter, the evening has been peaceful. Its something we need I think. We've been going pretty hard the last week. We've had a lot of fun but after a while you begin to wear down a bit, at least I do. So we're spending some down time. We thought about going and seeing Spiderman but the more we thought about it the more we realized how much we were enjoying relaxing with no particular place to go.

Tomorrow I'll race against the clock. Me, the bike, the wind and the clock. No peloton, no fear of crashing because someone pulled his brakes at the wrong time. Just pure motion and exertion. I'm looking forward to it with that mix of excitement and apprehension that I always feel before a race. I'm excited to test myself but I always struggle with the fear of failure. Last time I rode a time trial I finished third out of seventy. I was really excited. How will I do this time? What if I don't do as well? What if....? This is when I understand Tyler Hamilton's words about riding Le Tour this year or Lance's comments before the Olympic Time Trial in 2000. "I'm going to go out and ride at my best level." That's my goal for tomorrow. A good old Boy Scout "Do my best." If I go out and ride at my LT heart rate and focus throughout the eight miles and finish first then great. If I do the same thing and finish 50th then I'll be just as happy. I'll know I have a lot more work to do to be competitive but I'll still be able to say that I gave it everything. If I go out and only ride at 80% of LT and I get all distracted by self-doubt then I'll be frustrated. But I'll also try to learn.

Its funny. As much as I love the feel of being in the aero bars I really don't feel like I'm riding a bike. In the aerobars I feel a bit like some sort of superhero or maybe like Lance in those great pictures Graham Watson takes of him riding in that areo tuck. I feel like some sort of super special athlete. But that's not what riding a bike feels like. I mean, sure, riding the bike has a lot of those qualities but there's something a little more whimsical and romantic about it. Even when you're racing or suffering up some terminally long hill. Your hands belong on the hoods where you can feel the road like its part of you. You're sitting up a little and you watch the world go by. You feel just like a kid with all that freedom. That's why I always take the aero bars off my bike after I'm done training. If I leave them on then I'll be tempted to use them (you do go a lot faster) and if I use them too much then I'm afraid I'll forget what its like to ride a bike and just become another athlete.

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Saturday, June 15, 2002

Metaphorical Reasons

One of my favorite musical artists is folk musician David Wilcox. He is an excellent artist of both tune and word and I just picked up his latest CD, Live Songs and Stories. Now if you've ever had the pleasure to see Dave in concert you know that a lot of the enjoyment comes from hearing the stories he tells between songs while tuning up or whatever. This latest CD captures these moments excellently. One of the stories is titled "Metaphorical Reasons."

The story is about the various metaphors that work their way into his music and the process by which that happens. he tells that oftentimes they jump him when he isn't looking and isn't really aware what's going on. The key thing that clues him in that something deeper and more metaphorical is going on is that he gets "bugged". When I heard him talk about this on the CD it was like this rayfrom heaven shone down on me. I was like, "Wow! So that's why that happens." I'll go somewhere and something happens and I'll get really bugged. I mean, it's like all out of proportion to what's really going on. I use words like wrong and bad in a truly moral sense to describe a situation which is way overreacting. Kathy has begun to recognize when these moments are coming on and sometimes she feels the same way. Now I understand why this happens. There's something metaphorical going on underneath the obvious that's getting to me but I'm not seeing it.

Dave has a great example about shoipping. I really dislike shopping sometimes. I get bugged. Like Dave says shopping can be a metaphor for life. You go into the store to find one thing and then all of the sudden there's this "Blue Light Special" and before you know it you're holding a bunch of shiny junk and you're in the "CHECKOUT LINE". Now, how's that for a metaphor. And if you're not careful, it's the express lane and there's no getting out. I'll leave it to you to figure out the rest. For my part I have to thank Dave for giving me license to get bugged every once and a while and for prodding me to look for the metaphorical reasons.

Finally, I don't mean to sound like a shill here, but I really would recommend the album. It's just real. Not really great or awesome orsome other stupidly overused adjective that hyper marketing machines use. The CD is real and it speaks to the part of you that wants to retch everytime you hear an N'Sync or Backstreet Boys or some other music industry copycat song. it tells you that things are going to be alright and there is an alternative to the mysoginistic lyrics of Eminem or the sex, drugs and money ethos found in 90% of what's produced today. In our house we have a staircase that's 112 years old. The rail is wooden and curved. Its handmade and worn down by thousands and thousands of trips by probably hundreds of different hands. Its real. Dave's music is like that. The Christians who reaad this will appreciate Dave's faith centered approach that doesn't become way overboard like a lot of CCM today. the non-Christians will enjoy his voice and will find truth in what he writes about.

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Monday, June 10, 2002

A Long Time Coming

Well, it's been a week since I last wrote. No excuses except that I got a bit busier than I anticipated and this blog is pretty low on the priority list. Navel gazing isn't something I spend as much time doing as I probably should. I'm guessing I'd probably rant less and be a much more centered dude if I did but then you wouldn't be as entertained if that were the case I suppose. That's a discussion for another day I think. As for today, I offer the following:

Dusk

05/12/02
C. Davies

A day fades, slowly, gently into night
It’s passing marked by breeze and birdsong.

Midnight blue unfurls its long train across the celestial canopy
Blown by a warm, soft current from the east.

Heralded by brilliant Jove’s appearance in the west
The evening slips on like a royal silk robe.

Wisps of clouds, dreams illuminated
Pastel, pink and peach against an aqua sky.

Grey bearded old oaks become silhouettes standing guard
Set against a fading light, murmuring confidences long known.

Slow rising, the swell of a night’s song carries on the velvet
Sweet and high harmonies of uncountable voices.

Jewel toned luminaries appear from within the folds of the brocaded robe
To dance the night’s slow and stately waltz in perfect time.

And so begins the night’s gala pageant, festival and feast
Richly and royally heralded and received.

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Monday, June 03, 2002

Relaxed beginnings

Summer school starts here tomorrow. Today is registration and that's always an interesting time. Since we have preregistration here (even for new, incoming students) and we have on-line add/drop most of the students we see are "last minute" students. They've decided to take classes here at the last minute. Sometimes that's because an opportunity has opened up and allowed them to get a class in. More often, however, the reasons aren't as optimistic as that. Students find out that they've failed classes and so are now scrambling to get back on track. Some decided, "Hey, I don't have anything better to do so why not go to summer school..." Others are just chornically late or lacksidasical. In all these cases I am amazed that the student wants to try a four week, "Drinking from the fire hose" approach to the class. I mean there's almost no room for error in these courses. One overslept day usually means that your grade drops a whole letter and usually these students can't afford to have that happen.

More amusingly is that fact that many of the students come totally unprepared. Usually, the conversation goes something like this:

Student: Hi, I'd like to take some summer courses at Gordon.
Me: Cool, do you have an academic summary for me?
Student: Uh....what's that?
Me: Are you a readmit, transient or new student?
Student: Uh....yeah...
Me: Have you been over to the admissions office?
Student: Uh...am I supposed to go there first?
Me: Yes, go over and make sure your file is all squared away and then come back with an academic summary and we'll be good to go.
Student: OK...I'll be back

15 minutes passes...student returns...with freshly printed academic summary in hand

Student: Ok, I got that thing you needed.
Me: Great...what courses did you want to take?
Student: I need Chemistry and Calc I
Me: We don't offer Chemistry in the summer and Calc I is full, do you have a summer schedule?
Student: Uh....

As you can tell, this sort of advising can be a highly rewarding experience for both me and the student. So, the only approach to take is to chill out and relax. You can't really invest much in the students you see so you just try to have a totally cool attitude and let it all slide. Tonight I'll share some of the stories with my wife and we'll laugh. That's not to say I don't try to help the students that come to see me, but I'm not going to get all wrapped up in their poor planning crisis. The students with their bouyant waterfowl achieving linear symmetry have already got their classes and will be here, ready to go tomorrow. Today is just preliminaries.

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Thursday, May 30, 2002

The End is Near

OK, so I'm in the supermarket checkout line and a headline in one of the tabloids catches my eye, "...Jesus to return within weeks..." it screams. It has the obligatory Eurocentric image of our Savior (I'm guessing He had olive colored skin like most Jews of the time instead of the commonly pictured pale Northern European palor seen more frequently) and some group who claims to have had a vision. This got me to thinking about the whole Christian endtimes industry. Now, I don't mean to go off on a rant here but these guys are less creditable than Gary Condit's signature on a "True Love Waits" card. I mean every year we hear some self-proclaimed phophet of God pop off about how the Lord is coming back on such and such a date and that all true Christians will do some really unthinkably dumb thing such as selling all of their worldly possessions or taking all of the red pills or drinking the Koolaid. Then the date comes and goes and, assuming there are still living people to notice the person's error, the person claims that it was only through their intercessory prayer that the end was avoided so that more of the unwashed heathen might come to find salvation in the prophet's "one true way."

Now, I may be wrong here but the last time I checked the leather bound play book known as the Holy Bible that Coach wrote with some help from the offensive coordinator Jesus (former All American Quarterback from Nazareth U.) and that mastermind of a defensive coordinator H. Ghost, that paticular play was missing from the game plan. In the endtimes section there's a blank page that says "For Coach's Eyes Only". The day and time are UNKNOWN! It says that, in black, white and red. Not "unknown to everyone but big BillyBob Baptist from Beaufort". Not "unknown to everyone but Reverend Ed and his special brand of followers who shave their heads in that very special way". Unknown to everyone but the Father. That includes the coordinators and all the leaders and all the followers and everyone else. No exceptions.

How do I know this is true? Well, besides the fact that it's clearly stated in the really cool book of God, there's the fact that every single person who has claimed otherwise has been wrong. Not just sort of wrong. Not kind of wrong. Dead (in some cases literally) wrong. And this isn't just something that afflicts the so-called fringes of Christianity. Just look at all the books published in the couple of years leading up to the millenium. The Y2K bug was going to be the end of the world. I mean The End. A lot of the prophecy wags sold an awful lot of air time claiming that the end was near. January 1 was going to be it; finito Benito. Well guess what? I'm still finding the books these people published (and a bunch of poor gullible Christians bought) in bargain bins and at thrift stores. They were WRONG!!!! Just like everyone else before them. The sad thing is that most of these people are still out there claiming to have a date. Even sadder is that there are people still listening.

Why are they listening? Well, these people claim to have signs. Last time I checked, the second line on that "Endtimes" page in the playbook says that the day will come like a thief in the night. Thieves usually don't give signs. That's kind of the point of all the sneaking around bits that are usually associated with thievery. Why has God been so secretive? Is He waiting for the moment when He gets to spring it on us and then fall over laughing and saying, "You should have seen the look on your face...HA, HA, HO, HO, HE, HE, HE....."? I don't think so.

Ever had an important relative coming over to your place (say like your mother???) and you have to get ready? If you know when she's going to drop by there is a general slovenliness that prevails until about two days before the visit and then the mad rush to clean everything within an inch of it's life commences. Now, what would life be like if the last day were known. Heck, even Madonna would go to confession that last week. So remember, you aren't supposed to know, it's all about about faith. We're to Run the Race and keep our eyes fixed on, not the finish line, but "Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith". That's because we don't know where, exactly, the finish line is. The Race isn't as much about the destination as the journey.

Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Wednesday, May 29, 2002

Hello again...I'm back after a brief haitus. We went camping as you probably know if you're checking in on my lovely wife's blog, baking my noodle. Actually it wasn't so much camping as safari. You can't call it camping when you bring 50 pounds of cast iron cookware and sleep in a tent that has it's own mailing address. I'm not complaining mind you. Sleeping in a tiny little leaky tent and eating out of lightweight aluminium cookkits was 'da bomb' when I was a scout but there's a lot to be said for the safari idea. I understand why ol' Teddy Roosevelt was so fond of it. All of the beauty of the outdoors and most of the important comforts of home.

I managed to do a lot of good bike riding up in the hills/mountains of North Georgia. I suffered through a lot of it but I also triumphed and succeeded. There's a lesson there, but I'll let you figure it out. Anyways, we're back safe and not less sound than when we left.

A quick Tyler Hamilton update. He did well today at the Giro. So with only two hard days left he's in third place. If he can hang on tomorrow and do well in the last time trial (his specialty) it looks like he might win this thing. It's the second biggest bike race in the world, only slightly less prestigious than the Tour de France. For Tyler just to be in the place he is with one stage win and in third place overall is a huge deal. Now there's a guy who's running his race! Forza Tyler!

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Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Recovery...

After three days of reasonably hard riding it's time for recovery. That's where I ride a day slow, on purpose. It's called active recovery by the coaching types out there and is supposed to be better than taking the day off. I don't know about that but I do know that I always enjoy recovery rides. I take the day to sit up and just spin easy. I set no schedule and the only rule is that I don't go too hard (under 132 on the HRM). Sometimes I meander all over the countryside and sometimes I ride one of my training routes but take the time to appreciate the view. Either way I find that I see things I've never seen before, both on the outside and on the inside. Given that I'm going to the mountains in a couple of days, I may extend the recovery period a couple of days so that my legs are rested up for the big hills. We'll see. Until the next time, keep the rubber side down.

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Monday, May 20, 2002

Welcome to another Monday.

This was a weekend of great movings for me. Not really exciting but we are rearrainging the domicile to make room for our Bible study. The "duct tape" approach of the last year is now being implemented with a bit more forethought and planning. While the "duct tape" solution worked for the study it made sitting in our living room a bit like enjoying a cozy evening in an airplane hanger when we didn't have 20 students sitting around. When you feel like you need to make a long distance phone call to talk with your wife in the same room, changes must be made. So made they are being. (a little Yoda speak for you...go ahead, say it in the cool Yoda accent...come on, do it...you'll smile. By the way, my wife's cockateil sounds just like Yoda right now, maybe we should have named her that.)

I'm down to just having to move a couach and the landmass of a desk we have. Now don't get me wrong, I love having a desk large enough to span two zip codes but unless I want to wait for the ponderous forces of plate tectonics to do the thing they do I'm going to need some serious help. I wonder if Bunya's doing anything in the near future.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by. I hope the race goes well for you this week. By the way, if you'd like to read about someone enduring through adversity, go to Velonews and read about Tyler Hamilton's ride in the Giro de Italia. Stirring stuff indeed. He has a good chance of winning this thing right now and that's after four different crashes.

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Thursday, May 16, 2002

An Elegant Machine
Chad Davies, 9/19/00

I am a motor, an organic engine,
powered by muscles and sinews and sunlight and will.
The heart of an elegant machine,
art of exquisite balance and sublime geometry.

My heart calls out the cadence
and with my lungs begin a dance.
My legs turn the cranks
and breath becomes rotation.
The cranks turn the wheels
and we are motion and wind.

I find freedom here;
freedom to escape, freedom to travel.
I am free, free to spin and climb.
I find love here;
love of wind, love of sun.
I am in Love with that inner silence and rhythm.
I find power here;
power of muscle, power of will.
We are powerful, this synthesis of flesh and metal

Together we roll and glide over this curving, rolling road.
Fast enough to fly, slow enough to see;
beyond the obvious, into the world we ride through,
washed in color, layered with texture, alive in our passing.

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Wednesday, May 15, 2002

So Ok, I'm watching ET this evening to catch the teaser trailer for the Matrix movies and they have this report on the new Kelly Ripa book club. They ask Kelly what the selection criteria for the books are and she says something like, "The book has to be frivolous and fun and have absolutely no message." Now maybe I'm missing the point here but ISN'T THAT WHAT MOST NETWORK TV IS FOR?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but when was the last time you saw something of any real value on Network TV? Seinfeld was considered good by most and it was a show about NOTHING. I figure if you're actually going to take the time to read a book and get involved and actively participate in your own entertainment it ought to have some sort of meaning. You should actually learn something when you read. Now here comes this woman with the intellectual firepower of a peashooter and she takes a book that's languishing at around seven millionth on the best seller list and makes it number one on the basis that it is her favorite book right now that LACKS ANY MEANING. IS THIS WHY WE WENT TO ALL THE TROUBLE TO CREATE THE PRINTING PRESS ALL THOSE YEARS AGO?!?!? I mean if you wanted to do something that lacked meaning you could have watched Friends tonight or any number of other meaningless things found on TV. Or better yet, you could have picked up an engaging copy of that deeply insightful and nationally recognized cultural icon, People Magazine, and have all the nothing you wanted. Heck, with People you get to read about all the Hollywood nothing you can possibly digest. So much so that many Americans overdose on it and have to be made to read articles from the New Yorker or the New Republic or suffer permanent brain damage. You think I'm kidding? Look around. I'll bet you'll see a lot of people suffering from People Magazine induced brain trauma right now. If it gets bad enough, all these people can actually read is the Weekly World News and the National Enquirer. I figure that's what has happened to Kelly Ripa. Too much People Magazine so she comes up with the Book Club for Idiots. I'm just waiting for her first book on Elvis' favorite donut recipes.

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Thursday, May 09, 2002

Hello again. Another new post to Run the Race. As you may have guessed, one of my favorite verses of scripture is Hebrews 12:1-2. I always think of racing my bike when I read the passage. I think of how I strip my bike down to just the things I need to race and I put on slippery clothes. I leave a little as possible for the air to grab. Then I start out and for the duration of the race I have to focus on what I'm doing. I can't let my mind wander or I'm libel to end up in a pile of bikes and bodies sliding across the pavement at 25 mph. I can't ride too hard at the beginning or I'll run out of steam by the end. I have to train my body to push through the pain and perform for a long time at a high level. When I train, I think of the work some of the cycling greats like Lance Armstrong or Johann Museuw are putting in on that day so that they can win the big races like the Tour or Paris-Roubiax.

I think my Christian life is a lot like that. I have to focus on a lot of the same kinds of things. I have to have endurance and patience with myself. It helps to focus on the life Jesus lived and how He did it.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Tuesday, May 07, 2002

Welcome,

You've come to the place where I will post my various ramblings from time to time. Deep thoughts, ill considered rants, startling discoveries, mundane observations will all appear here. Feel free to react to anything you read but you should also know that I reserve the right to react back. I am a person of deeply held, occasionally considered opinions and I do love a good discussion. Check back and see what's up.

The Physicist   Link Me    |