Burke Gilman Race Report!

Today I got involved in a heated race with this guy:


Leading up to this big race, I embarked on a new, more aggressive recovery operation. This includes:

1. More aggressive physical therapy with relatively aggressive joint mobilizations.
2. Acupuncture every week plus little needles left in throughout the week.
3. More ice. At least twice a day.
4. More exercise. It is time to start moving again.
5. More work to break up the scar tissue.

With this combined effort, I am starting to feel pretty good. Sore, but not in pain, so I registered for the Sunday Afternoon Sunday Burke Gilman World Championships. My main competition was this guy. The race breakdown was like this: he passed me, stopped, passed me again, stopped, I turned around, he turned around and passed me, he stopped, then passed me again, then we got stuck at the light and he passed me again. 5 times, he passed me. I put in a good fight, but unfortunately he must have more fast twitch muscle than me because he rode away from me and that was that.

The good news is that competitive spirits die hard, and it takes absolutley all the mental energy that I have to not ride harder and pass people. At least I didn't get passed by a roller blader this time...

What are they doing to you?

I keep wondering what they are doing to my poor bicycle.

I like to pretend that he ran away because I didn't ride him enough. I could forgive this. I am sorry that I didn't ride you more, but I was injured. You know you were high up on my list of favorite bikes. I am sorry that I locked you up outside.

And then I wonder what the robbers looked like. How did they steal you? Did they strip you down into pieces? I hope they at least let you keep your dignity. Are you crammed in a room with a bunch of other bikes, like a train on the way to a concentration camp? Are you sad and aware that you have been stolen? Gosh I hope not. Maybe they covered you with a sheet so you can't see.

Oh, Yeti, I am sorry. I know I should have ridden you more. Please come back and I will make it up to you.

Conclusion: The world does not want me to be a bike racer

I am finally starting to feel better, so I commuted to school by bike. The first day that I've been able to commute since October.

And then my bike got stolen.

Yeti Arc-X cyclocross bike with SRAM Rival, Ksyrium SL wheels, and a janky Bianchi saddle.

I filed a police report, and it is a pretty obscure frame, so maybe it will show up. The cop said there is an 85% recovery rate. Not sure if I believe that number, but we will see.

I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

At least I rode hard enough on the way to school for my legs to feel achy, and my hip does not hurt at all.

Now I feel dumb for locking up my Yeti outside, but it is the cheapest bike I have. I had a feeling before I left today that it would get stolen. I thought to myself "my car has never gotten stolen from the parking lot." ...

This weekend I...

-Watched a marathon of 16 and Preggerz because Erin is out of town and he hates that show (understandably), but now I can watch it all I want!!

-Walked far enough to start sweating. First time in a while, and I went to Elliott Bay Park, which is really pretty and along the edge of the Sound. I had never been there before, and now I have a new appreciation for the recreational areas in this city.

-Got angry about the unjustifiable claims that researchers are making in some of my assigned articles. I think my class on empirical traditions is working because now I feel angry towards the majority of the research that I read. I used to just enjoy things, but now I can't. My margin notes say things like "WTF?!?!" and "YOU CANT MAKE THIS CLAIM!!" and occasionally "This is retarded" when I get really angry.

-Ate beets and ice cream for dinner. I always get nervous the day after I eat beets (especially 3 of them). Do I need to see a urologist?

-Felt like a nervous mother because my friend/teammate crashed hard at Walla Walla, and I couldn't find details for a few hours. I took out my nervousness by making this: Heal Fast!

The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Realm of Medicine

I started acupuncture a few weeks ago as a last ditch effort to make my hip feel better. I think it is working.

I tried acupuncture last year when my back was hurting, but I wasn't convinced, and I didn't go back. The acupuncturist that I've been seeing lately is a bit more convincing. He talks about trusses and structures and mechanics, not blood lines and energy.

He also leaves little needles in my hip for the whole week. They are itty bitty needles, sort of like thumb tacks, with bandaids covering them. Sometimes if I move too quickly, they hurt. And they itch a little bit, probably because I'm allergic to bandaid adhesive.

But I think it is working. I was able to walk more this week, and I was in a lot less pain than usual. My hip has been tender to the touch ever since surgery, and this is the first week that it is not tender.

I don't really care about justifying why it works. I just want it to work. I don't think it's placebo, though. I've wanted a lot of things to work this past year. I am starting to feel antsy and lazy, which I think is a good sign. Being in pain for over a year is tiring and stress-inducing, but I think that stress is finally lifting. The acupuncturist told me not to do anything different these first few weeks, and it's taken a lot of effort to not try to ride my bike. Next week, I tell myself.

I am finally being forced to commit to things in my life, with regard to school and this new profession. This feels weird and makes me squirm a bit, but if I squirm too much, the needles hurt. Good needles. Keep me in check.

Cough Drop Logic

I have a bad cough, so I got some cough drops. It said on the package that your cough would be better in 10 seconds! This had to be too good to be true, and it was. 5 cough drops later, I'm still coughing as much as before the first one.

But then I started thinking, how would a cough drop actually stop me from coughing? My cough is in my lungs, and this cough drop juice is going down my throat to my stomach. Based on this logic, a cough drop won't ever work unless maybe I inhale the cough drop into my lungs. I suspect, though, that a cough drop in my lungs would make me cough more. I feel duped.

On another note, I got a summer internship offer. I am quite relieved by this because I have been working constantly since the first week of school to find an internship. I looked on every company website that I could think of in the area, went through 5 interviews, 2 portfolio website iterations, and innumerable portfolio content iterations. I was starting to get nervous that I wouldn't be able to find anything, but alas! My secret final cut pro editing skills saved me. Usability intern, here I come.

Grad school is hard.

This quarter is weird. Last quarter was relatively easy. Most of the projects we did were practical in nature. We carried out user-centered design activities and played with sticky notes.

But this quarter, there are no sticky notes. Our readings are long and dry, and for some reason, whenever I try to print them, they print in all black.

In addition to eating up all of my toner and frustrating me beyond comprehension, this also makes it very difficult for me to engage in active reading. I have trouble reading from my computer because I have the attention span of a 6 year old, and I check my email approximately every 10 minutes. Even if I do not check my email while trying to read an article, I will think about it until the urge becomes so great that I have no recollection of what I've just read. Old habits die hard.

This is also the first time I have felt dumb and inferior on a regular basis. I sailed through undergrad without much trouble, and I was pretty confident in my abilities. I'm taking one class in the night program, and many of these students have years and years of related experience. How do I compete with that? Work harder, I guess. I am only 24.

Additionally, this is the first time that I have had to take a difficult class that I do not like at all. It is easy to do well in fun, difficult classes or easy, boring classes, but difficult, boring classes are a whole new realm for me. I am trying to find something to grasp on to make the class more interesting as a means to trick myself into liking it. I can trick myself into doing VO2 intervals on the bike, and I can trick myself into mopping floors for a living, but I am having a brawl of a time tricking myself into this one.

The good news is that I am not alone. And I am only in my 2nd quarter.

Xylophone Playhouse

Welcome to the Xylophone Playhouse, a place for you to play with visual xylophones (because I haven't gotten to the sound yet), and a place for me to practice input checking and other fun bits of code with javascript.

I'd imagine that when normal people experiment with javascript code, they just make plain, generic web pages that prompt the user to enter information.

Ah, but I am not normal. I practice with the Xylophone Playhouse. Try a few of the higher xylophone piece options (like 6 or 7), then try 2!

This will get more complicated as I continue to practice.