My research group is putting on a conference this week, called ICEPAG (International Colleqium on Environmentally Preferred Advanced Generation). Needless to say I did not make up that acronym- mainly because I can't spell the second word. The whole conference is basically about large scale Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell / Gas Turbine hybrid systems. Basically pairing two new and upcoming technologies together in what could be the best possibly way to get power out of fossil fuels. (Still fossil fuels though)
Anyway, I was in a "short course" today about Hybrid Systems, and the one presenter was giving this presentation with powerpoint, heavily using the laser pointer. He had plenty of graphs and diagrams and everything, so it was very appropriate to use the laser pointer, though. What I found real comical was that the laser pointer stopped working about halfway through his second presentation. No problem for him, however, as he simply kept talking, and pointing the laser pointer at the screen, as if it were working. Now I was able to pick my way through what he was talking about, but it was just really funny that for the last twenty minutes this guy pretended like his laser pointer worked.... when clearly it did not!! Why even try to make it look like it works??
Monday, January 28, 2008
CBR#1 Ride it like you stole it
This race should have been called row it like you stole it. Sunday's forecast wasn't good. 100% chance of rain and thunderstorms.... and when rain happens here in Southern California, it doesn't sprinkle... it's torrential.
So I was surprised to wake up Sunday morning to sunshine in Irvine. It was beautiful! Though on the drive up to Dominguez Hills, Nicole and I were driving clear into the eye of the storm. The rain started when we were warming up... Liquid Fitness had about 5 or 6 people out of the 30 or so strong field that decided to race in the horrible conditions. So if we didn't place well... it'd be a little embarrassing.
The first few laps were just nuts. It wasn't like a real crit at all... I was never next to anyone. Always single file. Not because it was really all that fast really, just no one wanted to get too close to anyone I think. Most of the course was literally covered in water, and the corners were sometimes up to a foot or so on the insides. Surprisingly the good line was still right through the apex of the corner, so pushing through the deepest part of the water was fastest. After everyone got used to the conditions a few half-hearted moves went off the front. I made sure to either be in it, or be riding peoples wheels up to it if we already had someone in the move. Ernie kept pushing me to dive through turn #2 to create gaps, which if you took the turn fast, would always happen.
Turns out that when we were supposed to get 4 to go, they just gave us the bell. Also turns out that somehow myself and two other guys were off the front with a bit of a gap. I think the beginning of that lap we were aided by a little blocking by Ted in the field, and we easily stretched it out to maybe 5 or 6 seconds. I went to the front right before turn #2 and took the fast line through the deep water, and the other two guys went like little girls around the outside. So I had a few seconds gap back to those two already, then a few more seconds back to the field. Nothing else to do but hit it... so I did. I went as hard as I could for the rest of the lap. Looked back as I turned onto the home stretch and saw people coming, but still wasn't sure what was going to happen. I sprinted from the turn and gave it all I could, but an SC Velo dude came by to win, and Ernie had followed his wheel up and took second, leaving me with third. Still a good race, netted some cash (barely over the registration fee because of the small turnout) but also some upgrade points!! So.. sahweet. Not that I plan to upgrade necessarily, but I'll take what I get, and come the end of the season, we'll see what it adds up to.
Now its back to the real world for this week as I have a ton of work, a conference to help host, a short-course to attend..... BUT I also found what might be the coolest place to work for, in my eyes at least. And its about half hour from my hometown, in Albany. Weird eh? Now I need to find the California equivalent to work out here after school for a few years.
So I was surprised to wake up Sunday morning to sunshine in Irvine. It was beautiful! Though on the drive up to Dominguez Hills, Nicole and I were driving clear into the eye of the storm. The rain started when we were warming up... Liquid Fitness had about 5 or 6 people out of the 30 or so strong field that decided to race in the horrible conditions. So if we didn't place well... it'd be a little embarrassing.
The first few laps were just nuts. It wasn't like a real crit at all... I was never next to anyone. Always single file. Not because it was really all that fast really, just no one wanted to get too close to anyone I think. Most of the course was literally covered in water, and the corners were sometimes up to a foot or so on the insides. Surprisingly the good line was still right through the apex of the corner, so pushing through the deepest part of the water was fastest. After everyone got used to the conditions a few half-hearted moves went off the front. I made sure to either be in it, or be riding peoples wheels up to it if we already had someone in the move. Ernie kept pushing me to dive through turn #2 to create gaps, which if you took the turn fast, would always happen.
Turns out that when we were supposed to get 4 to go, they just gave us the bell. Also turns out that somehow myself and two other guys were off the front with a bit of a gap. I think the beginning of that lap we were aided by a little blocking by Ted in the field, and we easily stretched it out to maybe 5 or 6 seconds. I went to the front right before turn #2 and took the fast line through the deep water, and the other two guys went like little girls around the outside. So I had a few seconds gap back to those two already, then a few more seconds back to the field. Nothing else to do but hit it... so I did. I went as hard as I could for the rest of the lap. Looked back as I turned onto the home stretch and saw people coming, but still wasn't sure what was going to happen. I sprinted from the turn and gave it all I could, but an SC Velo dude came by to win, and Ernie had followed his wheel up and took second, leaving me with third. Still a good race, netted some cash (barely over the registration fee because of the small turnout) but also some upgrade points!! So.. sahweet. Not that I plan to upgrade necessarily, but I'll take what I get, and come the end of the season, we'll see what it adds up to.
Now its back to the real world for this week as I have a ton of work, a conference to help host, a short-course to attend..... BUT I also found what might be the coolest place to work for, in my eyes at least. And its about half hour from my hometown, in Albany. Weird eh? Now I need to find the California equivalent to work out here after school for a few years.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
How badass would this be
So I've used a mixture of google maps (especially since they added the customizable route thing, without adding a destination) and pedometer, a google maps hack, to plan rides, and to track out where group rides go... that sort of thing. Well over the last few days, I've put together what I consider to be the most bad ass ride google maps has ever seen.
Duration: a month or two?
Southern California to Seattle
I only have 18 destinations planned, all no more than 120 miles apart. They range from state parks to national parks, and major cities. 120 miles is NOT very far if that's what you're doing that day. Get up, eat some breakfast, break down camp and pack up, ride for 4-5 hours. Stop and make some lunch, and then ride for another 4 hours. So on the very longest days, you'd have to average ~15mph... reasonable. Most days are shorter, so ~12mph would do. But the bigger parks, and cities I'd want to spend a few days in I'm sure... so time frame is at least 40-45 days I'd say.
I figure I get some racks for the cross bike and carry camping gear- live the minimalistic lifestyle for a little while. If by minimalistic you mean carrying only a cell phone and digital camera, and eating as many clif bars and peanut butter jelly sandwiches as I can afford, and probably the occasional McDonalds milkshake.
Not sure when a good time to do it would be.... maybe one year right when I've had enough road racing- maybe July through mid August?
who's going with me?
Duration: a month or two?
Southern California to Seattle
I only have 18 destinations planned, all no more than 120 miles apart. They range from state parks to national parks, and major cities. 120 miles is NOT very far if that's what you're doing that day. Get up, eat some breakfast, break down camp and pack up, ride for 4-5 hours. Stop and make some lunch, and then ride for another 4 hours. So on the very longest days, you'd have to average ~15mph... reasonable. Most days are shorter, so ~12mph would do. But the bigger parks, and cities I'd want to spend a few days in I'm sure... so time frame is at least 40-45 days I'd say.
I figure I get some racks for the cross bike and carry camping gear- live the minimalistic lifestyle for a little while. If by minimalistic you mean carrying only a cell phone and digital camera, and eating as many clif bars and peanut butter jelly sandwiches as I can afford, and probably the occasional McDonalds milkshake.
Not sure when a good time to do it would be.... maybe one year right when I've had enough road racing- maybe July through mid August?
who's going with me?
Sunday, January 20, 2008
What a difference a week makes
Riding went much better this weekend than it has the past week, which was spent trying to recover while continually piling on too much riding.
On Saturday I went down to San Diego to crash with the bro, and hit up Swami's, where Chris Horner and Dominique Rollin both showed up and contested the sprints, well I heard that they contested the sprints after they had blown the doors off most people's ride (read mine). Still felt a lot better than the previous week, felt like I was able to dig a bit deeper before my legs really objected. Sunday I hit up Como Street and hung well the pretty relaxed pace ride, and climbed well on the long gradual climb that churns the ride into many groups.
Going to be taking it real easy this week... just spinning the legs out and making sure I'm fully recovered. Will probably open it up a little bit later in the week to make sure the legs are open. Sunday will be the first race- the first CBR event of the year. Looking forward to laying it all out there.
Expect this blog to go from about 95% cycling content, to about 100%.
Also, Slipstream took another big step recently, landing themselves a Giro invite! Hopefully the big show will be next, but the Giro invite is nothing to sneeze at, as it also comes along with other big races like Milan SanRemo. Can't wait to see the arglye boys hitting up the Italian races...
On Saturday I went down to San Diego to crash with the bro, and hit up Swami's, where Chris Horner and Dominique Rollin both showed up and contested the sprints, well I heard that they contested the sprints after they had blown the doors off most people's ride (read mine). Still felt a lot better than the previous week, felt like I was able to dig a bit deeper before my legs really objected. Sunday I hit up Como Street and hung well the pretty relaxed pace ride, and climbed well on the long gradual climb that churns the ride into many groups.
Going to be taking it real easy this week... just spinning the legs out and making sure I'm fully recovered. Will probably open it up a little bit later in the week to make sure the legs are open. Sunday will be the first race- the first CBR event of the year. Looking forward to laying it all out there.
Expect this blog to go from about 95% cycling content, to about 100%.
Also, Slipstream took another big step recently, landing themselves a Giro invite! Hopefully the big show will be next, but the Giro invite is nothing to sneeze at, as it also comes along with other big races like Milan SanRemo. Can't wait to see the arglye boys hitting up the Italian races...
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Grinding Away
The last two Coffee Crew rides (Tuesday / Thursday morning) I've done I've gotten dropped like a rock. The first time, I figured maybe I wasn't recovered from my first week back on the bike, along with a good bonk and some climbing workouts, it was a pretty hard week. The second time was windy as crap, but I did eventually make it back to the group, but obviously because they had slowed down considerably. Up the last climb I got dropped again, real early.
I'm hoping that I'm just dragging a bit from not quite recovering from last week.... hopefully some more sleep and I'll come back around.
For a more uplifting reading experience, check this new Slipstream article out. I really hope they do something special this year. A podium in a Classic, a stage win for Julian Dean in the Tour, some medals out of Beijing. Anything is possible.
I'm hoping that I'm just dragging a bit from not quite recovering from last week.... hopefully some more sleep and I'll come back around.
For a more uplifting reading experience, check this new Slipstream article out. I really hope they do something special this year. A podium in a Classic, a stage win for Julian Dean in the Tour, some medals out of Beijing. Anything is possible.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Mountain Climbing
This Saturday, I have some climbing on tap... About 2500 feet of it over 20 miles. Overall that gradient is not bad at all, but the first 15 miles are pretty steady, with some climbs mixed in with a lot of flat roads, but over the last 5 miles, which I plan to ride up a few times, the road scales up considerably more...
Check out the gmaps-pedometer here.
The bigger climb in the area reaches up to 6,000ft- Palomar Mountain, which I'll eventually do, but I'm not quite in the mood to get up at 5:00AM and shove a thousand calories in my face while driving down the 5 to get there in time to ride. Hopefully I'll get there once before Boulevard though.
Check out the gmaps-pedometer here.
The bigger climb in the area reaches up to 6,000ft- Palomar Mountain, which I'll eventually do, but I'm not quite in the mood to get up at 5:00AM and shove a thousand calories in my face while driving down the 5 to get there in time to ride. Hopefully I'll get there once before Boulevard though.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Lunatic Drivers....
So I've been out East for the break, and had a great relaxing time, and despite the sub 20 degree weather and wind tunnel like canyons of Manhattan, I miss it already.
But the real entertainment value here is from some crazy drivers in California... two to be exact, and crazy for very different reasons. I got a shuttle ride to/from the Long Beach Airport, because it would have cost about $130 dollars to park over the break, and only slightly less for a ride in this public transportationless hell. On the ride home, we were in the middle of a rainstorm, which in Cali can be pretty bad because the water brings all the oil and junk out of the roadway and makes everything slick as ice. On these conditions a car on the 605 swerved a few times, and then finally ended up veering from the right hand lane all the way across the four lanes, and smashed into the middle divider. The car ended up on its side, and it was close enough that we were already past him in a second or two.... crazy. Good thing there weren't alot of cars out.... I hope noone hit his car before they got flares out. I'm pretty sure he (or she) was drunk, judging by the amount of swerving before the accident... but who knows.
The second crazy driver was the dude driving our shuttle. Luckily his driving was pretty good, though a bit fast, but at 1 in the morning, it was all good. He seemed pretty normal while we were dropping off the first guy, but as soon as it was just me and him, we got to talking some more. After he learned I was studying fuel cells, he began spouting off on Nicola Tesla, who did a lot of early research into electricity. He claimed that Tesla's invention of wireless electricity was being held back from implementation for cars by the oil companies, and that a group of terrorists used scalar energy technology to create hurricane Katrina and the tsunami of a few years back. It kept getting weirder and weirder.... aliens, secret weapon technology, and an odd explanation for the trees that had fallen down in Siberia. Anyway, I won't go into all his crazy stories, but he did give me this printout with all sorts of crazy shit on it... here's a sampling:
These are topics that are suggested to look up on youTube for more info. Good source.
Al Bielek (Time traveler from Philadelphia Experiment)
Stewart Swerdlow (Time traveler / Mind control)
Phil Schneider (Built underground bases for Illuminati. Involved in Dulce, N.M. firefight with Reptilians, assisinated in January 1996) [this one is my favorite, just congers up a poor Sci-Fi show with iguanas flying UFOs]
D.A.A.R.P.A (U.S. Military Secret Division creating New Weapon Systems) [I think they might have one too many A's in there. Munas, watch out... your research is being used to build high powered construction bridges on Mars)
Freemasonary (several other secret societies were mentioned, illuminati... bla bla)
I think the best part of the conversation was when I asked him how he got into all this stuff, and he said it was after he dropped out of his Astronomy program at Long Beach State U, and got into witchcraft. Even funnier was later when he was talking about the terms the government deleted from Maxwell's equations, I made some comment on them, and he clearly did not know what they were.... astronomy without wave equations.... hmmmmm
Awkward ending... he wouldn't take my tip, he just told me to seek out this technology and open it up for the rest of us. FREEEEEEEEKY!!!!!!
But the real entertainment value here is from some crazy drivers in California... two to be exact, and crazy for very different reasons. I got a shuttle ride to/from the Long Beach Airport, because it would have cost about $130 dollars to park over the break, and only slightly less for a ride in this public transportationless hell. On the ride home, we were in the middle of a rainstorm, which in Cali can be pretty bad because the water brings all the oil and junk out of the roadway and makes everything slick as ice. On these conditions a car on the 605 swerved a few times, and then finally ended up veering from the right hand lane all the way across the four lanes, and smashed into the middle divider. The car ended up on its side, and it was close enough that we were already past him in a second or two.... crazy. Good thing there weren't alot of cars out.... I hope noone hit his car before they got flares out. I'm pretty sure he (or she) was drunk, judging by the amount of swerving before the accident... but who knows.
The second crazy driver was the dude driving our shuttle. Luckily his driving was pretty good, though a bit fast, but at 1 in the morning, it was all good. He seemed pretty normal while we were dropping off the first guy, but as soon as it was just me and him, we got to talking some more. After he learned I was studying fuel cells, he began spouting off on Nicola Tesla, who did a lot of early research into electricity. He claimed that Tesla's invention of wireless electricity was being held back from implementation for cars by the oil companies, and that a group of terrorists used scalar energy technology to create hurricane Katrina and the tsunami of a few years back. It kept getting weirder and weirder.... aliens, secret weapon technology, and an odd explanation for the trees that had fallen down in Siberia. Anyway, I won't go into all his crazy stories, but he did give me this printout with all sorts of crazy shit on it... here's a sampling:
These are topics that are suggested to look up on youTube for more info. Good source.
Al Bielek (Time traveler from Philadelphia Experiment)
Stewart Swerdlow (Time traveler / Mind control)
Phil Schneider (Built underground bases for Illuminati. Involved in Dulce, N.M. firefight with Reptilians, assisinated in January 1996) [this one is my favorite, just congers up a poor Sci-Fi show with iguanas flying UFOs]
D.A.A.R.P.A (U.S. Military Secret Division creating New Weapon Systems) [I think they might have one too many A's in there. Munas, watch out... your research is being used to build high powered construction bridges on Mars)
Freemasonary (several other secret societies were mentioned, illuminati... bla bla)
I think the best part of the conversation was when I asked him how he got into all this stuff, and he said it was after he dropped out of his Astronomy program at Long Beach State U, and got into witchcraft. Even funnier was later when he was talking about the terms the government deleted from Maxwell's equations, I made some comment on them, and he clearly did not know what they were.... astronomy without wave equations.... hmmmmm
Awkward ending... he wouldn't take my tip, he just told me to seek out this technology and open it up for the rest of us. FREEEEEEEEKY!!!!!!
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