i'm 25

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 16:58:28 GMT

april in a nutshell.

went biking around nova, dc, and maryland. 50 mile trip that started at my house, went through: crystal city, arlington, roslyn, georgetown, bethesda, chevy chase, and rock creek park. me over rock creek park:

went camping with lori in western maryland near west virginia and pennsylvania. it was a 3 day trip, the campsite was 3 miles from the car, and it rained at least 4 times. but, it never rained when i wasn't under cover and it was very fun. i tired out the dog for the first time ever.

and this weekend i finally went too far. my 94 mile bike trip through nova and maryland was entirely too much for one day. part of the trip was very muddy:

i had to wade through so much that it took me ~3 hours to get through the 15 miles of mud. i went over white's ferry:

i don't think i've ever been on a ferry before.

the total for april is: 208 miles!

i have pictures of all of my bike trips and here are the maps. the most recent trips are at the end.

6 million calories per weekend

Sun, 02 Apr 2006 19:48:57 GMT

well all the things i said i would plan in my last journal entry ended up happening. i went up into rock creek park (nw dc) last weekend.

the trip was 35 miles. in rock creek park they close down the roads FOR pedestrians on the weekend! that means, you can bike in the middle of the road and not have to worry about getting run over. also, it's pretty eerie to be in the middle of dc and see a road that isn't inundated with cars.

this weekend i went rock climbing with vinnie! it was fun.

does vinnie mind having his picture here? i just thought it was a good picture because it gave an idea of how dang tall and slanty the walls were.

we only climbed for a few hours but my arm muscles (and tendons) were so tired by the end.

i also went biking with steve, my coworker. another boring map:

i biked to meet steve at wakefield park. we biked the 7 miles around the lake and then i biked home. all told, i ended up biking 26 miles. fun++.

it's sprung

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 05:10:29 GMT

i'm going to do a short trip into dc to bike around rock creek park on sunday morning (the 26th). if you want to join me, it'll be about 25 miles total and since it's not a loop, it's easy to turn back early. i've never been to rock creek park and i've never biked from virginia into dc, so it should be an adventure.

i'm also going to do an easy trip around accotink the sunday after (the 2nd). i'm free to go morning or afternoon. if you want to join me, i'll be meeting at wakefield rec center to park and it'll be about 7 miles total.

i also want to go rock climbing! i'll be going to a nice place near reston (well ~4 miles) a week from this saturday (april fools day). the place near reston is actually a very small chain and they have a "branch" in alexandria. i went last week and it was a blast!

if any of these events interest you, please respond to this post so i'll know to give you details. i'm more than happy to change any of the parameters of the above events. let me know.

900,000 calories per hour

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 01:24:26 GMT

last weekend - longer trip. 30 miles. alexandria past mount vernon and back. i found my odometer: 13 mph average. hardest bike trip ever.

i was biking through town on my way back home and there was a huge temporary orange construction sign that was taking up the whole sidewalk. i was trying to bike past it on the sidewalk, but there wasn't much space for me to fit around. i ended up falling on the sign and then getting stuck under my bike! i wasn't too worried until i realized that there were fifty cars all stopped at a stop light right next to me. sixty or seventy heads turn in my direction and a hundred or so eyes start staring at me as i sheepishly get out from underneath my bike and shake myself off. embarrass.

this weekend - longer trip again. 50 miles. lori drove me to west virginia, or just short of it (a town called percellville). i biked the whole w&od trail end to end (45 miles in 2 hours 56 minutes: 15.5 mph) and then biked the 5 miles to alexandria. went through leesburg; went through herndon; went through reston; went through vienna; went through falls church; went through arlington. hardest bike trip ever.

at the end of the w&od there was a huge group of about thirty hispanic americans all looking for temp jobs. i stopped nearby to rest my legs and

qué pasa said the man
nada says me
habla español he asks
no i smile
he smiles
ah, three years of spanish put to good use.

pics

updated: i added some stuff.

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 06:24:08 GMT

last weekend - biked ~14 miles in like an hour or so. planned on being out longer but i got lost and accidentally went too far south too quickly.

this weekend - biked less than 30 miles in a few hours. i didn't realize that you weren't allowed to bike on roosevelt island until i was on my way out. oops. around 7:00pm i was almost home but then i realized i was going completely the wrong way and it was pitch black. so i had to call lori to save me. man, do my legs hurt.

update: if you're interested in joining me in the future, i'm looking at:

alexandria to reston (~30 mi) (or the other way around: reston to alexandria).

alexandria to leesburg which goes through reston (~40 mi). (...or leesburg to alexandria)

alexandria to mount vernon (15 mi) (...or mount vernon to alexandria ...or alexandria to mount vernon and back, 30 mi).

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 21:41:06 GMT

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/1/l_011_01.html

interesting text and interesting video.

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 02:24:26 GMT

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 21:29:05 GMT

for those of you who care (i'm sure you're few and far between), 4/20/2000 to 5/9/2000 of the message board (previously lost) have been found and returned to their rightful place. they were the remaining sections i was curious about because 5/9/2000 to 7/8/2000 are definitely lost forever.

of the newly found messages, nothing of usefulness or interest was found (so why am i posting this?!).

the unuseful and uninteresting things that can only be found in the unlost section:
rajan posts,
ellins posts,
tracy posts,
will posts,
two friends at University of Maryland Baltimore County talking to each other in some weird language,
pierce comparing the message board to the OO listserv,
miguel calling me dumb,
this wonderful gem (link to the internet archive back in 2000; images won't load and stupid circa 2000 banner ads),
paul using the word "thingy".

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 14:20:33 GMT

yes, the message board and other pages are down AGAIN (for the third time in three days).

1st time: cable went down and effed up my modem.

2nd time: power went out and my ups ran down. then when power was restored, my machine was effed up so it couldn't boot.

3rd time: cable went down. i've called comcast and they SAY they're going to fix the outage.

Tue, 02 Aug 2005 13:56:51 GMT

one of three things may have happened:

1. comcast is down.
the fix: hopefully they'll get it back up soon. i would call and complain if i knew which of the options was even correct.
2. comcast changed my ip.
the fix: i wouldn't be able to find out what my ip is without getting lori's help.
3. my computer crashed.
the fix: i wouldn't be able to restart my computer without getting lori's help.