boo for rainy days and rainy nights.

August 4, 2003

WEll, Lance won, fifth time, first American, and if he gets his old form back he could make six. good for him. Tyler finished fourth overall after taking second in the final time trial. Not bad for someone with a broken collar bone ya know? Went to Maine and enjoyed some time off. Went with Simone and it was really nice to spend three full days with her. We went hiking, and paddle boat rides and races and swimming and stuff... yup, it was good. I went on a bike ride while we were up there. I liked the roads up there, windy, long and not many cars. The only problem I ran into was that it felt like all of the roads were pointing up. I'd get up over one climb, desend for all of two seconds and then I was facing up hill again. Although I did hit something like 40 mph going down one of those hills. It's kind of scary when you hit bumps and you feel the bike want to send you flying off. Gordon and I went on a pretty good MTB ride on Saturday in Harold Parker. Just wish I had grabbed my Bladder before leaving, then it would've been a really good ride. I pretty much bonked half way through and just couldn't push myself anymore. It was just really nice going someplace new and exploring. Sunday was my first day off from most everything. I just slept in and then went out to Border Café and Richardson's Ice Cream with Simone and Bobby. It was a good time with good food. Actually ran into Allen out celebrating with Steph. I'm really happy for them and it'll be good for Allen to get out of the business and find something else to do. I need a camera. Today I built my first wheel. Übber cool. I really liked learning all of theory behind building and what each spokes supposed to do and why it's built the way it is. I'd like to become a master wheel builder or at least really good at it. Also it was a nice break from fixing Pacific's and doing endless flats. Actually all I really did today was wheels, trues, spokes and hubs. It was a wheel filled day...

An update?

July 24, 2003

Tyler = Man of Steal Some uhmm... yeah, Tyler Hamilton is the man. He won yesterday's stage 2 minutes over the main field on a broken collar bone. Hell yeah. He's by far one of the most deserving Tour winners, only wish he didn't break that bone... where would he be now, if he could stand in his pedals and go stroke for stroke with the likes of Armstrong and Ullrich? Proably right behind those two. Read about the stage here. Now to wait untill Saturday for the last individual time trial for the final test of the Tour. I did a frame swap today for a guy complaining of a creaking bike. Took me quite a while to do it, I probably could've done it in an hour but it's tough to get things done when you're constantly being interupted... ah well. Learned how to mount tubulars today, actually only watched Allen do it, but i have the main idea of it, now only if we had cheaper wheels for me to practice on. Some time next week I should be learning how to build a wheel which will help me with my truing skills. Tommorow's Lollapalooza. I can't wait, my first real concert in some time... Just wish A Perfect Circle was comming this way, they're only doing the west coast shows which sucks I wanted to see them. Oh well, Audioslave is still comming this way and they rock. Did Lance win yet?

An update?

July 23, 2003

Wow well don't I suck at updates... haha sigh... ah well... Here goes nothing. To begin with school is now over for me. For real this time. I had thought it through a few times and well, I"m not going back next year, and that's that. Sorry to the three or four friends that I made up there, but living in my parent's house for a while sounds better than getting no sleep at all. That whole stress enduced/ noisey floor thing didn't help out my self esteem/ motivation either. Oh yeah, mad props to Mike Lee. I've bought yet another bike, well two actually. A Giant Rainier and a Felt F25. The Rainier is a far cry from what it started out as from the factory. Within about a month I've put a Psylo XC w/ a tulio qr20, a Sun Ringle hub laced to Single Track rims, Michelin Hot S 2.3 tires, Titec Hell Bent bars, Big Al stem, Race Face Prodigy XC cranks, Time Z Pedals and some WTB saddle with ti rails. It's big pimpin' now. The Felt has Campy Chorus and will have Time Impact S on it. Hopefully I'll have some new shoes and a Giro Pneumo to go along with it too. I passed my practical exam for the EMT thing, now I need to study for the written exam and I'll be golden. Work's been fairly stressful as of late. Employee morale is fairly low, everyone's getting on each other's nerves, but most of the shop going racing should have helped a bit. Allen's moving down to Rhode Island. His wife got a job that pays well down there. Good luck to him. Simone and I will be going to Lollapalooza on Friday and Maine next week and visit my family. All of which will be really good for me as I've been getting entirely too stressed out over things and can desperately use the time off. The tour's been amazing this year. It's actually a race and it's going to be a doozy. I hope everyone's been watching it or at least been keeping close tabs on cyclingnews.com. Tyler's in 7th on a fractured clavical which is absolutely amazing. It's great to see such a nice guy doing so well for himself. Man I hope he somehow pulls out a podium finish at the end of the race. That's all for now, check back soon I might update again!

Sigh

April 9, 2003

Yep that pretty much sums up my life. I know I missed stuff last update, but so it goes... Let's see, been working on my aunt's basement for the past few weekends. Putting up a suspended ceiling there, just like at schools. Hanging the stuff was easy, putting in the panels was easy, but leaveling's a pain in the butt. Did electrical work today, hung the florcenct lights. It's going to be a nice cellar. My uncle has all of these nice craftsman roll around toolboxes everywhere, but most aren't filled and even if they do have somthing in them, there's not so nice tools in them. I want those same toolboxes with nice tools in them. Actually I'd be content with the Pedros Master Tool Kit. That thing's got all of the practical tools in a very convenient case. The tools are tough and comfy. The only thing I'd want to replace is the cheap-ish combo ratches with some Snap-On combo ratches. Snap-On + Pedros = dreamy. Went for a ride last Thursday. It was really good but really muddy at the same time. Came back soaked like George Hincapie and Johan Museeaw after Paris-Roubaix. I haven't really rode since, but I plan to tommorow. We'll see how that goes. Must get in shape... I've been feeling kind of down the past two days. I don't know, people haven't exactly been the greatest for me lately. Molly came down today and checked on me which was nice. Michelle's been talking to me which is nice too. Mike Lee's still the man. Other than that people's just been sporadic. Maybe I'm too nice. Maybe I let people walk all over me. Maybe I should develope a back bone and say something. Maybe I've just had enough. I don't know... I just feel so isolated. I don't have any motivation what so ever. All I think about is getting the hell out of here. It's my main priority. School life drains me. I have no desire to go to class, to do work, nothing. I just want to sleep all day, but I can just barely sleep. The few times I do though it's so deep and relaxing. I wish I never woke up, stayed in that sweet euphoric state. I almost wish I could remember my dreams so while I was awake I could day dream about them. I don't know maybe to others all of my whinning about school doesn't seem like anything but noraml, "I hate school" stuff, but I really do hate it. It kills a little part of me each day I'm here. The only thing I put any effort into is my EMT class, but that's (hopefully) going to be lively hood in the winter. Sigh.

Spring Break

March 26, 2003

Man a lot of time's gone by... was doing really good about updates ah well... From the World of Ends: 4. Adding value to the Internet lowers its value. Sounds screwy, but it's true. If you optimize a network for one type of application, you de-optimize it for others. For example, if you let the network give priority to voice or video data on the grounds that they need to arrive faster, you are telling other applications that they will have to wait. And as soon as you do that, you have turned the Net from something simple for everybody into something complicated for just one purpose. It isn't the Internet anymore. Let's see, for the first part of spring break I went to NYC and visited Simone for a while. It was good. In case ya'll forgot I have (had) insomnia and she really helps regulate my sleep. I sleep best there, probably because I'm relaxed and calm there. No worries. Anyways we went to the Statue of Liberty, (pics to be posted soon-ish, maybe) played pool with John and Liza and went to Smalls Jazz club. Doesn't sound very eventful but a very relaxed, very good weekend. We came back on the China Bus together on Tuesday, unfortunately for us we left the nice 60° weather in NYC to the harsh windy 45° weather of Boston. Sigh should've stayed there... Went to my EMT class later that night. Wednesday was spent fixing my car's exhaust, front wheel, oil and sticky hood. Later played video games with Alex. yeah, that was my Wednesday. Spent Friday night with Kate, Simone and Adam in Boston. We finally got to have the best Mexican food after thinking about it for a week. Border Café has the best beef fajitas there. Highly recomended. Saturday night went to Jess's apartment for a "party" of sorts. Made french bread pizza's, I never get my fill of those for some reason... Made an acquaintance in one of her gay friends, I think his name was Rob. Nice guy wasn't the obnoxious "I'm gay and everyone near me has to know it" type, just a genuinly nice guy. Back to school, got my hugs from Molly because they count according to Mike. Attended my classes, that's all I can really say about them, that I attended them. Found my school bike was busted up pretty good, my front wheel was folded over where it was locked up. I had to go home and pick up another wheel from home. Fortunately working at Pro Cycles I don't have to pay the full $40-$50 that a new wheel would cost, but it's still a nuisance. It turns out that the pack rat that I am I had a wheel that will probably work, but we'll see once it's on there... Today I went on a nice little jaunt up to Hudson, NH and back. Ran into a guy from Hudson up on the road. He was riding a LeMond Alpe D'Huez I believe, the yellow one with a one inch stem. Anyways I had pulled over at a fork in the road to try and orient myself we smile and wave as he goes by. It was a few moments untill I figure out that indeed I did miss the turn I wanted and have to head backwards so I catch up to him and start riding with him. Not much for talking but I would burn him up the hills and coast to let him catch back up and pass me again, then burn him on the next hill. That was my self esteem boost of the day, tooling a 30ish year old up hills on his home ground. It was his first ride of the season, and what I would consider my second serious ride of the year. But was it satisfying to let him get a lead then sprint up past him. It put a big grin on my face. I just put a Cat Eye OS on my 'cross bike and didn't quite set it up right. I went down this hill at 51.2 mph and was confused when cars were passing me. I go on a little while later and notice 30 mph doesn't seem that hard to sustain. Well it turns out everything was in km/h instead of mph. Boy was I disapointed to find out my glorious 50 mph descent was only 30 mph. It just means I have to get into better shape. ah well... It was still a good ride anyways. I planned out my racing season for the first half of the year. Hopefully I'll figure out a way to post that up here soon. So much to do...

Bah. No sleep again.

March 7, 2003

Alright the NO ONE'S KIND show at the Middle East rocked (from what I saw of it). Shame on all of those who didn't attend. My explanation for why I didn't see all of it goes something like this; In order to help keep myself from constantly spending all of the money I don't have I took my debit card out of my wallet and I never have cash any way so that's not a problem. We'll I get to the door, go to pay the guy when I realize I have no money, no problem run accros to the convenient Soverign ATM across the street. Problem #2 I don't have my debit card. So I scrounge around my car when I realize I still have that huge thing of quarters in my car. So I end up paying $6.66 in quarters and other loss change. Well worth the adventure though. A few more links have been added. Go check them out. Most notably Bikes Not Bombs Located right here in good old MA. Mike Lee's still the man. Alright already it's march, i need to get a move on here... racing is already started! pedal pedal pedal... Still not sleeping that great hence wise I'm updating this here at 6 in the morning... Hopefully this'll come to an end shortly. I have a doctor's appointment at 9 today and I'm hoping for some strong drugs to knock me out at night. Maybe then I'll sleep through the loud drunks knocking at doors at 2/3 in the morning... Girl B - Boy A situation hasn't improved so far...

In regards to March 1.

March 3, 2003

I'm sorry to all parties that were offended to my previous entry. Unfortunately all are not present for the occasions that I do happen to drink so let me clarify upon that. When I do go out I generally drink 2-4 beers 5/6 being about my limit. I like to drink just enough to feel the effects, I've had the experience when I was younger of drinking untill I vomit and it's not very fun and just creates a mess. I tend to be the person holding girls hair up and forcing the guys to drink water with a touch of salt. I'm sorry to Simone especialy, you're all that I have. Saturday night Boy A likes Girl B. Girl B is made fun of profusely by Boy A's friends. Boy A is torn and Girl B has no idea about Boy A. Suggestions/comments are most appreaciated all 3 of you that read this. jerks. Could someone please help me to find motivation to do some work? EVERYONE GO SEE NO ONE'S KIND TONIGHT AT THE MIDDLE EAST IN CAMBRIDGE!!!

Just checking in.

March 1, 2003

More and more people have been getting on my nerves lately, but fortunately I've also develped a few more good contacts. A couple of the guys on the floor have just hit nerves that piss me off, mostly just being loud, obnoxious or not being able to take a hint. sigh. Molly, Dennis, Mike Lee, Bradley and this girl from State & Local, and CW II, have been really cool to me. I amuse Molly because I need to amuse myself somehow, so I'll throw her a smile or something, we'll laugh and it helps the hour and fifteen go by a little faster. Dennis'll get me drunk, gives me a place to go and is amused when he does see me drinking. He's really a cool guy underneath that tough shell of his. Mike Lee is the man, period. Bradley and that girl just amuse me in CW II. That's about it. It's march now. I need some good weather and motivation, because I miss my bike... Yes that's all, leave some love with me. please.

V-day to Here.

February 23, 2003

Simone came to visit for Valentine's Day. It really was the perfect weekend, almost pure bliss. I picked her up when I woke up and brought her back to Lowell to situate ourselves. Around 6 or so we made our ways over to Vinny Testa's at the Liberty Tree Mall. There was a two hour wait so we wandered around the mall, I drooled over things in Best Buy for a while. If I only had money... Once we were seated we sat in the back corner which was quiet and secluded and had a very nice dinner. We talked over our spaghetti about this and that, and really just enjoyed one another's company. Around 2 am the floor boys came back, drunk and loud, so we had to go out and see what was going on. Mike was drunk and (playfully?) wanted to get into a fight with chip. Very amusing. Eventually Pepsi and Nora put in The Bourne Identity so we sit down and watch that. Very good and highly recomended. Saturday after a brief visit home we went and saw Daredevil. I liked it soooooooo much better than Spiderman, notso cheesy and much darker. Props for the fight scene in the park too. Monday was the big snow storm, the busses were cancelled so went to IHOP. Yay for good breakfast food. The extra two days were just comfortable fun. ooh yeah, and we discovered AIDS-BE-GONE which is being modeled by the lovely Mike Lee. Simone left on Wednesday, it was wierd not having her there anymore. I got so used to always having a very close companion to laugh with and be happy with. sigh. someday... Thursday I had a test in State and Local Politics, which is a very interesting class I might add, I think it went fairly well, but we'll see. Anywho, it was a nice day out so I rode my bike over to class. It was so beautiful out, and the pedals turning felt so right... the turn I have to take to get up to South Campus was busy so I just had to keep going for a bit. If it wasn't for a test I would've continued pedalling on my merry way to bliss. The ride home wasn't as nice, kind of just wanted to go back to bed... also that side of the street is pot hole ridden and nasty. Which brings me to tommorow. Friday. No school so I rode my bike home so I could take care of some doctor stuff. I was delayed for a while because I had bloody nose, but once I got out it was sooo nice out. Once I got onto rt. 38 though, it started up again. I pulled over and waited it to stop, I tried to clean myself up with snow and thought I did a pretty good job, but evidently I got some on my chin and a dot on my nose oh well... Got rolling again and it was nice up until about 1 mile before the lake in Willmington to about a mile or so after the lake. It was full of nasty pot holes and puddles that were honestly at times about a foot deep. I thought Willmington was a well to do community? Well, guess they just don't really care about their roades... Oh wait that's a state road. I forgot. The state doesn't have any money... So anyways, it was tough sharing the road with so many lovely Mass drivers... I really dislike SUV's and many mini-vans. They're careless, can't see and unpredictable. Some are mom's that are overly cautious and won't come near you and there's others that want to run over you... *cough*SUV'S*cough* Then I have my qualms with such a large wasteful polluting car. I mean 20 miles/gallon? Come on! They're not better than a car or wagon, many can't even tow a boat... 4-wheel drive doesn't help you stop, and they destroy everything else in the world if they hit it. hmm... I'm becomming more and more anti-car as I ride more... actually some of it's practicality and some of it is wanting better public transportation and then there's just not liking most of the cars on the road today. Very little origonality, and where's subtlty? It seems it's either bright and flashy or a plain box... sigh. I FINALLY got to play with the Fooey San! It was nice We went to the Border Café, the best fajita's around. Sat in the downstairs, which was nice and quieter had a nice conversation. Seems like when ever I talk with girls we enevitably end up talking about diets. Personally I'm with the Subway diet. (: Eat what you want, when you want, but in moderation (something American's have trouble with) along with a fair amount of excercise (another thing American's have trouble with). It was raining out so we huddled close together under her umbrella as we went. Wandered around in Newbury Comics for a while, is it a sign of me growing up that I actually do end up going and wandering around in the books? I spent my last $6 on "Nine Stories" by J.D. Salinger while Kate got the new album from Phish. We went back to her dorm and talked for a while. There's nothing better than the warm company of close friends.

Playing with Dynamite.

Febuary 13, 2003

Youthfulness, having an imagination, being full of vigor and seeing the world for more than what it is. Not being trapped in the mentality of this is a chair, and I’m a factory worker or whatever. But when a chair isn’t a chair and I can be the President or a pilot or a rock star. The world I so much simpler but it’s not so static. That is what the secret to life is. Not being trapped in the mentality of a dog is a dog and a cat is a cat, but when a dog can be an Alaskan Sled Dog and a cat can be a wild tiger out on the prowl. Living life, not taking things for granted and seeing all there is to see with the same passion and eagerness of an eight year old. Appreciating what is given to us and making the most of it.

Awww... Yeah...

Febuary 12, 2003

Totally sweet. I got Photos up, a new usb 2.0 pci card installed and if i could plug more power cables into my already obscenly over drawn outlet, I'd have my scanner hooked up. What's all this mean. Well I'll tell ya. It means I got some Photos up over at the Photos area. Go check out four pictures that I thought were worth your time. Friday's Valentine's Day and Simone's comming up here. That's sweeter than the new Photos section. Mike's finally going to meet her and I'm going to be able to sleep!!! YAY!!! So I went to the doctor's today, and it's official, I've got insomnia. Now I need to go talk to some psychologist and figure out what's wrong with me. I'm going to be taking an obscene amount of Benadryl until the doctor fixes me. Oh did I mention I have a Photos page now?

Sigh or not to Sigh?

Febuary 8, 2003

MY INTERNET CONNECTION SUCKS!!! I miss being able to just hop on the internet send friends files over AIM, steal music through Napster, get a ridiculously low ping while playing Counter-Strike, being able to check people's away messages at will... Man, I miss having control over my isp, at least at home if it was slow it was either a) because I did something to slow it down or b) because we had a dial-up connection. MAN SCREW UML'S WEBSERVICE. Back in October/November I read something in the Lowell Connector that the ISP department should have everything fixed before printing. Yes, I have been able to stay online for longer periods of time, but sudden interuptions is un acceptable. Transfering at "0.01 kb/s" is unacceptable. They say all of the filters and firewalls are for protection. Well, if people thought for a minute before clicking on "YOU WON $1,000,000.00 click here and forward this to all of your friends to claim your prize" we wouldn't have half the problems we do now. You see my problem is that I spend most of my time reading/researching/socializing on the internet. Maybe it's unhealthy, but I beg to differ. If it wasn't for AIM I'd be even shyer than I am now. I wouldn't be able to talk to girls as easily and I would be with out the love of my life right now, Simone. I wouldn't know half of the things I know and I'd be a less informed person. ah well... such is life I guess... Not much goes for riding, I'm pretty disapointed in myself. I just can't get myself out there to ride... I need to find motivation!!! sigh. I did get out on Monday and Tuesday. Monday I sprinted back and forth from Fox to Mahoney, back to Fox, back to Mahoney because I pulled my bike out of the back of my car and thought I had left my keys in the trunk. Turns out they were in my sweatshirt pocket. I felt like a jackass and was a few minutes late. Tuesday it rained on me and that pretty much killed my motivation to ride. I did feel pretty good that I passed the bus on my way back, so sometimes you win, sometimes you loose. Just gotta get out there. Got me a brand spankin new Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum. It's pretty sweet. Click here for a review of my pretty pretty card. The cool thing about this is I got to hook up my friend Mike Lee with my old card so his flamming computer now has sound all of that music that's just been sitting on his hard drive can go to use. Sweet. The Avalanches rock the party. Word. Heh, when I sat down to write this I thought it was going to be a bit more meloncholocy, well, guess I surprise even myself. Oh yeah one more thing I got a new e-mail :: oswald@fmgmail.com send me love.

ha ha it's only been 4 days!

January 30, 2003

Why am I not happy? Why am I here? Why can't I just sleep like a normal person? These are the questions I've been asking myself fairly regularly if you have an answer please enlighten me. I'm not so sure anymore if I can handle another night of 3 hours sleep. January 31, should be the last day of procrastination. I'm going to clean up around here, go home collect a few bikes and start riding Saturday. That's the general plan, I still don't have an outline for my workouts but hopefully Allen can give me a bit more direction on that one. I haven't talked to him in a while. hm... I'd like to get a free weights program going for me, but I'm really insecure and don't really like gyms... Went to my first EMT-B class. The instructor Sean Dean is an awesome guy and seems like he's going to be an awesome teacher. I'm really excited about it, well, that's an exageration, but I don't dread it like I do so many other things lately. It's twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday from 7 to 10 and a couple of Saturdays. I thought this would be a good thing to do for two reasons. 1) I've been a lifeguard for three years, years of scouting and first aid so I have some familiarity on the subject. 2) Work for the school as an EMT and get paid $10-20/hour in my spare time. Sweet. That's about all. Later.

oi... 2 months have passed... /:

January 26, 2003

Happy belated Birthday to my cousin Geoff! Well hope every one had a good winter break, I had a so so one, but I thoroughly enjoyed having an entire month of from school as opposed to the week at Christmas time like High School. Christmas was the same as usual, the entire family came over our house. It didn't feel like Christmas though. It felt rushed, I had gotten out of school the friday before and just couldn't prepare mentally. Then Christmas day it just didn't feel like anyone really wanted to be there which was kind of sad but what are you going to do I guess. I got some clothes that I had picked out with my mom about a month or two before and all in all it was probably about the lamest Christmas ever. ALTHOUGH - That was probably also one of the better christmas eve's. I worked ten to three that day and then afterwards the shop had a little mini christmas party. There were some beer, some scratch tickets, rum balls and some bike racing. awwwwwwwww yeeeeeeeeah! Racing in circles around the bike shop, nothing like some full contact sports in a tiny area at fairly high speeds. Brian basicly went around the shop whatever way he felt and knocked us around the same way. Soooo much fun. Then some quality time with Simone and church till late. Even though Christmas day was a bust, Christmas eve made up for it. For New Year's Simone and I tried to go see the ball drop in Times Square. We didn't really look into it that much and thought if we went at 10pm we'd get there, stand somewhere kind of far away packed into a dense crowd and see it fall. Well we got there and saw that they blocked off from about 39th street all the way up to central park at 62nd street. After walking up and down, we didn't get in. We watched the fireworks explode behind the building where we stood. It was a good weekend though and Simone and I had a good shopping experience where I helped pick out a very lovely sweater. Go my taste! Well, last semester I didn't do that great, part of it was just being in the wrong math class to begin with and the other part was getting an incomplete in College Writting, hopefully I'll figure something out with the teacher and get that straightened out. This semester I NEED to get a 3.0 else wise, well I'm pretty well screwed. I think part of the problem is I don't have any real motivation to stay here, to do well here. I'm just bumping along taking classes and seeing what happens... I guess I'm just not all that happy here. check out these two ips: 2.16 January 12:22Lockheed-Martin Corporation, Denver, United States 6.20 January 20:26The Boeing Company, United States Who the hell do i know there??? Well maybee if people signed the guestbook I would have a clue... sigh. oh well... moving on. After Pat left No One's Kind, I felt inspired and wanted a chance to play with those guys. They had a kid named Josh playing with them and I thought I'd be able to bring something to the band that they'd been missing. I have energy and can hold time, but I don't have the commitment that they have. I didn't want to be spending all of my free time playing bass and doing the whole band thing. I realized it was too late for me, my love and passion is in bicycles. Good luck to those guys and JOSH if he stays there. If anyone has money to burn and would like to get me a present, buy me a digital camera. I'd like to put in a photo section here. I find myself wanting to take pictures of places I've been and of things I've done. I think it'd bring something to the site too... I'd also like to get a banner going for up top so the site doesn't look so plain. I love the lay out but would like something more... I've gotten more serious about my cycling. It's the one thing that can consistantly make me happy. I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the month and then Febuary 1, I'm going to hit the gym start lifting and spending a little time on the bike there. I'd like to make a serious run at the races this next season and hopefully been in great shape for next cyclocross season. I'm reading a lot of my back issues of Bicycling, VeloNews and some books I own. I really want to do it right and do it well. I'm constantly thinking of summer when it's warm and I can ride all day long in shorts with my jersey open and wind screaming through the vents of my helmet. I hope I'll be able to get out with Simone again for a relaxed ride somewhere scenic, that I'll be able to go through excruciating pain with Allen and have some fun rides with Gordon and Ryan, maybe Jason'll accompany us on some them too. I'm restoring my Aunt Mary Ellen's old bicycle. It's this old black women's Meta Jet with a Sturmy Archer 3 speed hub. It's old and scratched and has a fair amount of rust on it, but I think it's cool and worth while. I want to fix it up as best I can and find a place to display it. I'll try to take pictures of it so you can see what I've been upto. That's all for now, thanks for checking in. P.S. Sign the Guestbook!

Absent no more

November 14, 2002

It's pretty crazy how busy I've been. There are times where I've felt like I haven't really been doing anything but there's no time... I've was up untill 3 AM for 3 nights in a row doing things for psychology. A teacher whom I've grown to despise, she assigns things with little for warning and expects it done relatively soon. Also she grades pretty hard. She's a poor lecturer, assings tons of reading, and the class discussions have close to nothing to deal with the work we are assigned for homework. I'm doing well in the class and think I will finish with a high grade but it's hell. Lately, well I guess much of the time I am here I wonder why. Never have I liked school at any point in time and I don't know what I want to do with my life. I guess that's part of college though, finding yourself. So many of the people have things planned out. Where they'll be in ten years. I guess I don't really care where I'll be, I would like to be happy where that is. As far as college actually goes though, I don't want to be doing work, well at least in not in this sense. I like doing things with my hands, building or fixing things. Started with Legos and moved to my love, bikes. If business wasn't so math based I might move into that field, but I don't know. Dorm life has proven to be interesting. My floor is loud, drinks a lot and can be quite destructive. Tonight they were all three, smashing apples into our bathroom door. It's mildly amusing but not quite what they mad it out to be. I tend to stay in my room a lot to stay out of trouble. More trouble is the last thing I need. Most of them are fairly good natured though so I suppose it's ok... Only not at all. My side of the eighth floor is being threatened with loosing guest privileges untill Thanksgiving which screws with many of my plans. ARG! I raced my first cyclocross race a few weeks ago. It is so my sport. I placed 28th out of a field of 50. My next race will be November 23 & 24 in Connecticut. I will do better at these two races. I'd like to get a top 10 finish by the end of the year if possible. My roomate has been very cool. We get along well and help each other out whenever possible. We got our room set up pretty nice and spend entirely too much time playing 007 Goldeneye. I'm getting better at it... but is that really a good thing? I think so. (: That's all for now, come again soon and often. I swear I'll update again by the end of the month...

GASP! An update???

Ocotber 24, 2002

Where to start... For a freshman in college living in a new place with new people, I seem to have relativly little to say. Well at least little time to say it. For a while all i could think of was how alone i felt. How i felt lost and confused. Simone helped me get over that rather quickly, but I still seem like I can't find the time to say and do all the things I'd like to do. I've been meaning to update for so long but something keeps comming up. Unfortunately i tend to fall behind on things. I don't do what i say i'm going to do. I forget so much, i forget important things. I feel like a waste of a person then. I feel as though i've failed my friends, those who trust in me, i fail my teachers, my family. Everyone. I have a lot of free time here. I shouldn't. I should be studying for this or that or the other thing, but I'm not. I'm sitting here typing away what's on my mind. :: September 8, I rode in the Flattest Century in the East hosted by the Narragansett Bay Wheelman Bicycle Club. (www.nbwclub.org/) I did it with a friend from Pro Cycles, Gordon. One memory sticks out the most from those six and half hours we spent together was him doing wheelies on his road bike while he passed people. So much energy, and natural ability in that kid. For those who don't know a road bike's geometry is designed specificly to keep BOTH WHEELS ON THE GROUND. The front triangle is pretty damn long and the rear wheel is pretty well tucked up behind the rider so it handles well, but that front wheel isn't supposed to be getting any air. Now I've seen him do a wheelie on just about every bike made, except for high end Trek Mountain bikes, those things suck horribly. He's done them on this old Schwinn Apple Crate with the shifter on the top tube, and his dad's Bike Friday tandem, also their other "normal" tandem he's done bunny hopes over curbs... I dropped him of in Acton to pick up his Celica. He's obsessed with that thing... It's a 2000 white Celica GTS. It has all the bells and whistles except for the stupid Gold Package. He's happily in debt now. Good luck to you. Over the past two weeks my dorm's been evacuated four times. Three times were actual fires, where a kid has set trash barrels on fire. He'd place them underneath sprinkler heads so the water would put it out and every one would have to leave the building. They've been on Saturday night, (I wasn't there for that one, I was in Providence with Gordon) twice on sunday night, at 11:30 and 1:30. Then on Friday night a girl set her cookies on fire, saw some smoke and pulled the fire alarm. The fire fighters expected another trash barel and came up with the smoke fan. When they came back down they were all laughing at what had happened. That's over now, they caught the kid and he's probably on probation, kicked out of school and paying some hefty fines... Oh yes, I should probably inform all of you where I am now. Well I am currently a freshman at UMASS Lowell in the Undeclared Liberal Arts program. I'm probably going to end up majoring in either Liberal Arts with a concentration in history or something of that nature or Political Science. Fall semester I'm taking College Writing I, International Relations, Precalculus, and Intro to Psychology. I still don't like math so I'm not doing so well there. I've realized that a large majority of it has to do with me not being able to memorize formulas, I can apply them alright but I just can't remember them... sigh. oh well... Anyways, I really enjoy my International Relations class, especially when we get into debates and such. Hearing different peoples ideas, some more well backed up than others, but hearing them just the same. Now my focus is on Cyclocross. It's kind of like cross country running/ hurdles on a bike. Sounds like the sport was designed for me, so I'm really excited about that. I bought Allen's (from ProCycles) old GT ZRX. It's almost identicle to my road bike so it's been fairly easy to make the switch to off road. I still need a lot of practice before I'm really good. My first race is this sunday in Amherst, so if you're in the area check it out. That's all for now, thanks for keeping with me.

Stuck in a rut.

July 17, 2002

So what's happened in a week? Work. Ride. Feel sorry for myself. At work I'm still building bikes and wierd little random things here and there. Like washing windows. I got a big kick out of when a guy came back to pick up a wheel that we respoked for him, again, and I got to talk to him about road bikes. I actually know a bit about them so it's easier to talk about the more detailed things about them. He was such a nice guy and said he noticed every thing I told him about his new wheel set. He was like a little kid talking about it all. Seeing how I helped him out made me feel pretty good about myself. Another guy came in and started asking about road bikes, another chance to shine. I basicly put him on the bike that he wanted and would've walked out of the store with it if we had it in stock... oh well, at least he knows what he wants now. My riding's pretty spuratic. I haven't been on my road bike since that ride with Allen mostly because of other time restraints and stuff. I went on a really good Mountain bike ride with Gordon. It was a very full filling ride that made me wish I had a camera. Must start bringing one. Lots of images stuck in my head, wish I could draw... Right before we went into the parking lot I almost took a nasty spill, my front wheel got lodged between a rock and I started going over the handlebars. Fortunately I was able to step over the bars and walk through the fall. Still kinda frightening and still strong in my mind. It was also the first time I've ridden the same bike on a ride. I've been borrowing Jason's bike for the past few rides. I haven't figured out things with Simone yet. I just don't know what to do, think, feel or say. It's just so hard. I still have strong feelings for her, but the way things are right now, I just don't know about anything anymore. I hope it all becomes clear soon.

It's just so hard...

July 11, 2002

My road bike makes an awful creak. I thought it was my bottom bracket that was doing it, but i overhauled it, and it's still doing it. Next up is my headset then. While I was at the shop Allen, "the pro" (or DJ Horton if you're in the know) offered to take me along for a ride. He was doing hills, I wanted to go for a ride and really wasn't doing much else and said sure. Well we rode from the shop to his house in Woburn, and then rode to Arlington where we were doing the workout. The flats were easy for me, granted I was drafting off of him for most of it, but that's what I'm well, not so bad at. I can spin an easy gear at around 100 rpm's pretty comfortably for a good long time. That's good, but once I hit an incline, I'm pretty screwed because there's no where really to shift down to. Well his workout consisted of going up this one hill about 8 times and then riding around for a while. I made it up the hill 3 times and the last time was mostly because of a well guided push up the last ascent. I spun around this circle at the top of the hill while he went down to do one more climb. He brought me back to 4 corners in Woburn and went off to ride some more. On that ride I was thoroughly belittled and at the same time awe inspired. I'm 5' 10" and 130ish pounds, I'm built like a climber. I should be a descent climber without even really climbing, but I'm not. I'll change that. Now I know how. I'm still hurting from Simone. We finally talked tonight. I hate not talking to her. It hurts me so much, but I guess being rejected does that to you. From now on I'll also have to take it one day at a time with everything. Everything. It's sad though, because I had plans and ideas for the summer, I was looking forward to visits and visiting in the fall. Now, now I really don't have much to look forward to. I once read that once you start riding rode bikes you find your wife and you're married to her. Your wife's not a woman it's your bike. We'll maybe I've already found my wife at age 18.

I'm broken

July 10, 2002

I went for a ride today. It was slow, it was painful. I left my house, went to Lynnfield, to Middleton, to Topsfield, to Georgetown, to Boxford, to North Andover, to Andover, to North Reading, to Reading, to home. Normally when I get on to Haverhill st, I'll take a turn to play around in a part of Reading I know. I usually go upto Simone's house before heading home. I couldn't bring myself to go up there. Today on my ride, everything ached. My legs hurt, my lungs hurt, I was tired, but more than all of that, my heart wasn't there. I don't know where that is anymore. Now I know what it feels like to lose. To lose at something that really matters.

I guess this will be like a bimonthly thing...

July 8, 2002

Well, the shop's been keeping me busy. I work hectic hours that change from week to week and that's been getting to me. I've also taken up the job of Special Project's Devision. Where I'll basicly become a handy man. Hey brakes up the monotony of building bikes. Today I did about 15 flat tires, to say that got on my nerves would be an understatement. What was worse than those 15 flat tires, was the thought that Simone was probably going to be breaking up with me tonight. It happened, and it hurts. I don't want to lose her as a friend, but I really don't think I can talk to her for a while. What's worse than that is, I'm not even mad at her, just sad that it's over... I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now.

Must... update... more...

June 24, 2002

Ok, so life's been busy lately. A lot busier than most summers. Summer's supposed to be this mythical time where responsibilities and cares fall by the wayside and fun takes over. Over the past few years resposibilites and work has found a way to take control... Fortunatly enough for me, I get the school year to slack off and have fun, and that's FOUR TIMES AS LONG! Actually that's been concerning me more and more lately, because next year I'll be starting college which means I'll have to pay to slack off, and I'm not one to waste money... must garnish a work ethic soon... My Dad's Thunderbird is really finicky, sometimes it runs quite well, other times it doesn't. We've replaced, fuel filters, starters, mufflers, a whole mess load of wires and such. It's been well... interesting to say the least. I get to hold lights and run to the parts store track down silly little things. On the plus side though I have been able to drive it a few times. The front end is really loose, the brakes are touchy and the exhaust kind of leaks into the passenger compartment. Fun... I'm still loving riding. About a week ago I went on my first mountain bike ride with Gordon from the shop. It was very picturesque, which made me want my camera so I could take pictures. : ) yeah that was bad... This sunday I rode 50 miles. It took me 3 hours which is a pretty good pace, I went upto Topsfield, Boxford, North Andover. I got lost a few times and had to pull over so I could find my way again. It's pretty frustrating when streets just suddenly change names half way down the rode and when street signs are missing... Hopefully I'll be able to go for another long ride again soon. I'm trying to build up my endurance for a Century ride by the end of the summer. Also I'd like to at least do one crit myself, but before I can I need to develope some serious speed. Last Saturday Simone and I went up to watch a Criterium in Nashua. It was miserable weather, but a great race. The fields were small because of the weather, but that was better for the riders because there was one turn they were taking at like 40 mph, in the rain, in a fairly large field. During my 3 hour stint there I saw 5 or so crashes at that first corner. It was a great race to watch, didn't like seeing all of those falls though. I'm looking forward to my first race and a time where I can watch a race again.

AT&T and other late happenings

June 16, 2002

So yeah, my isp provider AT&T decided to discontinue my internet service for about a week. They like to do that from time to time and mess with my life. Over all I'm happy about their service, but I'd really like to find out how to get my url from them, so I can get rid of these annoying pop-ups and banners on my site. Also I'd like my e-mail account from them so I don't have to worry about things being deleted on me. Yeah, I'm cheap, and lazy, but I'm getting more and more annoyed at the current situation of free services i'm using. Last Wednesday I went for a ride in the rain and it was one of the best experiences ever. There was no one else on the rode (for good reason) and it was just so very peaceful. As I pedaled faster and longer I stopped thinking about any trouble I had kept my circles going. My cadence staying around 85-90 rpm's and it was fairly comfortable. My travel brought me through Lynnfield, Middleton, Topsfield, North Reading, Reading and back to my home in Wakefield for a total of roughly 25ish miles. As my rides continue to get longer and longer I enjoy them more and more. I tend not to want to stop. It's better in the saddle, I don't feel stuck in the same rut that I have been the rest of my life. Speaking of being stuck in a rut! I graduated from Wakefield Memorial High School this past weekend. As I look back on my High School career I find my self wondering what would've happened if I did just a little bit more than the bare minimum to get out of there. I mean fourth term I did next to nothing at all. I showed up and did some of the work that was due in school, but that's about it. It's kind of depressing at how little I had to do but that I got through it... Also made me think of the time I took the ASVAB for the Navy and scored something like an 83 when the average was 45 or so. Or the time I took my placement test for math classes at UMass Lowell and scored in the 90th percentile, oh well, maybe I'll try during my tenure there.

The Prom

June 6, 2002

Ok, now for an update on the prom business. Well, Simone came by right at 5, just like she was supposed to, our families took pictures in my back yard, then we went to the Fox's to catch the limo. Everyone was supposed to be there at 5:15 and the limo was supposed to leave by 5:30, but Tim and Bob were late so we didn't leave untill around 5:40. In my town we have this big ordeal of a thing called the Grand March, where everyone gets dressed up and walks around the Uper Common, down by the lake. It's a pretty big deal, and more than just families of the kids show up to it. After two circuts of the common, and after the limos were checked, everyone got loaded up and went to the prom. The prom itself was pretty cool. I really can't stand most of my classmates, so I kind of kept to myself, but everyone seemed to be in high spirits. The only bad encounter I had with anyone was one of the girls, who's always a bitch and forever in my mind be refered to as bitch, who didn't shut up or stop complaining, she's also very very loud, so it's hard to forget about her. The food was good, and the music was, well, random. The music had no flow from one song to the next, it was like a schizophrenic dj, with a few thousand personalities all picking one song from a hat and then playing them. It was good though, heck Simone actually got me out on the dance floor for quite a bit of the night. After the prom Simone came over my house where we hung out for a while. Around 4 am we took showers and got changed so we could go try to see the sun rise. We'll I guess the sun comes up around 4:30 and it was cloudy so we pretty much missed it. It was still nice being up at Wingersheek beach all by ourselves at twilight. The cold and wind got to us so we got back in the car and headed back for grand old Wakefield. It was about 6 am so we went out for breakfast at Brother's, which has great food. Miraculously we made it back to my house and took a nap on my couch. So all in all, I'd have to say that was a good prom night. >>note to self: think about putting up a picture page. or at least links to pictures.

The Prom

June 4, 2002

Well... It's almost time for the prom, in a little bit I'm going to go upstairs and get showered, shaved and dressed for this, hopefully, joyus occasion. But First! Gassing up the wagon, getting the RIGHT colored vest and some pretty pretty flowers. As for after the prom, I'm thinking comming home, showering a few times, and then driving up to Salisbury Beach. There we can sit by the beach and watch the sun rise over us. Yes, I am the biggest dork on the planet, but I'm a lucky one. And the bonus for the day is I don't have to work on Wednesday, so I can actually get some sleep after the prom business. Anywho, I'm off.

One last update before bed...

June 3, 2002

I've been slaving over this computer for you for hours... I've added some *actual* content today. Some of the archives that I could find from .:PhoeniX:. have been added to the Archives page. Unfortunately the first six months of it's inception, I have been unable to find. I'll keep looking, just because you're so special.

An update for you

June 3, 2002

/tear forms in eye. My first update. Quick Mom get the camera! ahh... yeah... Got the site to open up in the same window. I've been cutting and pasting from a few other site's to help make this as quick as possible for me so I'm still learning all of the code to it. I'm kinda annoyed that I can't make blogger work with geocities. Worked 10 - 5 today at the shop. I really like it there, I'm looking forward to putting in 40 hours per week there. Tommorow's my prom. I guess it's at the Hyatt in Cambridge, but I'm not so sure. I still have no idea what I'm doing after the prom, but I guess that will all sort itself out in due time.

Opening

June 2, 2002

This is the beginning to what I hope becomes a cult phenomenon. In the not so near future I plan on giving you, an update on my happenings, some eye candy and hopefully you'll go home a more enriched person.

Access my old Archives.