Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Wow, that seems like more than a year ago. Times have changed. The last two years of undergrad were a blur.. the days all ran into each other. But there seems to be a sharp defining line between then and now. In some ways things are very different, and in others, not so much.

As always, time marches on. Everybody moves on to the Next Big Thing.. the next part of their lives. When I go home, most of my old friends aren't there anymore. They have their own jobs, or they're at their own grad/med schools, out of state or out of country. Or I've just lost touch with them and they're in exactly the same place I left them.

The people you used to spend most of your waking hours with, you now only see once a year, or less. The set of people who know your life story by experience, and not from stories, get fewer and fewer.

It's a little sad looking into the past, but you can't forget: life is about the present. The people who knew your old life story may be getting fewer.. but as we speak, those who know the story you are creating today are only increasing. It all works out.

But once in a while it's nice to go back and say hello.

3 days and counting!

Sunday, February 16, 2003

• Hayabusa, CBR1100XX, ZX-12R.. the three production motorcycles with the highest top speed. The Blackbird seems smaller than the other two. (BTW if you've seen my video clip of the mc doing the 0-300 kph run.. that's a Blackbird.)
• Police versions of the BMW R-RT and Kawasaki KZ-1000.
• Ducati 999. Sweet. Seems like it would be way too uncomfortable riding it around on the street though. But I guess that's not what it's for.
• "Normal" sportbikes like R6, R1, F4i, 600/954RR, RC-51, ZX-6R, GSX-R750, etc. (In other words, bikes I would consider getting more than the ones above, but could never afford the insurance on.)
• I wasn't that impressed with the new SV-650S. On the other hand I liked the ZZR-600 a lot.. that's the old ZX-6.
• Saw the 600 version of the Trimph Daytona... looks sweet. It's very angular, kinda like the Aprilia Futura. Couldn't try sitting on that one though, it was on a platform with a "do not touch" sign.

Then I went grocery shopping, had dinner, and saw the 300th and 301st Simpsons episodes. Pretty funny. "I don't remember being in a commercial! <crunch>" And the sequence when he first bit into the Krusty rib burger thing, that was a reference to Requiem for a Dream, right? That was cool.

Finally I saw The Recruit. Not bad! Although it's kind of silly when some secret killer computer virus is part of a movie's plot, in general the technology in the movie was more credible than usual for Hollywood. The screen actually looked pixellated. And when random stuff flowed by, at least it looked like C code instead of Matrix-ey random numbers and letters. Still had the problem of keyboard noises not matching up with stuff on the screen though. Wow, see what happens when an engineer goes to the movies. Oh, and apparently Colin Farrell uses Opera.

Going home in 6 days. Oo, single digits now.

Monday, February 10, 2003

I bought a Douglas Adams book, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, for $1. One of his early books. I already read the sequel. If you don't know who Douglas Adams is, he wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. If you still don't know who he is.. well.. go read the series. It's hilarious.

Now if only I can find the time to read the thing.

Hey Allan, I wanna see your autocross clip. I don't care if it sucked! My first run was really crappy too. It's a lot of fun though. And it put about 10,000 miles worth of wear on my front tires in one afternoon. =)

Speaking of cars, I bought fog lights for my car. Woohoo. I've been waiting for them to show up on ebay for a long time now, and they're never on there. Of course now that I've ordered them they will be plentiful and cheap. This basically happens with every car part I buy. Oh well.

And Ian, I can't remember the last time I made my bed.

12 days 'til break.

Friday, February 7, 2003

Katie sent me some cookies in the mail! Woohoo! Thanks.

Something I learned a few days ago: there are cities that levy income tax. Isn't that strange? Apparently only 15 states allow their cities to levy income tax. Michigan is one of them, California isn't. Luckily, as far as I know, Ann Arbor doesn't have its own income tax, so it doesn't matter to me. But isn't that weird? Classically you think of income tax as meaning Federal and State. Some people have to file three returns! That sucks. Although this does explain why sales tax is so damn high in LA.

15 days until spring break.

Tuesday, February 4, 2003

There's a motorcycle show in Detroit in a couple weekends. That sounds interesting but I gotta find some people to go with.

Ok, time for a new countdown: 18 days until I come home for spring break!

Monday, February 3, 2003

My car looks clean because it rained today.

Have you guys seen the movie Heathers? It's pretty funny. What's your damage??

Sunday, February 2, 2003

Above, left: Columbia lifts off on its final mission. Right: A view of Earth and moon taken from Columbia. Below: The shuttle crew. Photos are from NASA's web site, here.

A guy on TV said, becoming an astronaut is somewhat like fighting in a war, in that you do something that inherently has high risk because you believe in it. But in this case, rather than risking it for country or politics, you do it for pure knowledge, and that's a great thing because it benefits all mankind.

These people died fulfilling their dreams. If we could only hope to be so lucky.

Meanwhile, hope you had a happy Groundhog Day. Gee, this calendar I got that lists all the holidays is pretty useful. Apparently, it was also Graham Nash's (from Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young) birthday.