Ticket

I got a ticket this morning for speeding on my bike and not placing both feet down at a stop light. I was riding down the Embarcadero when a police officer claimed to be using his radar on a street next to SBC park. I was doing a track stand (http://www.ehow.com/how_14109_track-stand-mountain.html) in the intersection which is a stationary technique use to avoid clipping from the pedal. He eventually pulled behind me on his motorcycle and used his siren and lights. I thought he was trying to get around me using the bike lane, so I waved him around. Next thing I know he's using his microphone and yelled, "STOP NOW!" I guess business is slow this month - he even wrote the make (Specialized), model (Roubaix Pro), and color (Carbon) in the description boxes. I feel so safe in San Francisco knowing the police are hard at work busting serious criminals.

Lunch Ride

I know it's been a while since the last blog entry, but I promise to keep it updated. I want to thank everyone for reading my blog and the email responses. This afternoon I rode across the Golden Gate Bridge on my road bike. The temperature was perfect and only required knee warmers for the section over the bridge. I am fortunate to have a job in the city where I can cruise to Sausalito and back on my lunch break while enjoying a famous view along the bridge. I stopped halfway across the bridge to watch a group of cormerants sun bathe on the structure below. I descended into Sausalito with another road cyclist and we turned around at the same intersection and headed back up the hill. We worked together on the climb and eventually split up at the end of the bridge - no word of communication the entire time. It's funny how two people can have a mutual agreement without a spoken word :) Anyway, the Tour of California will be coming to the NorCal area next week and I plan on watching the opening prologue along the Embarcadero. The tour will travel to the south bay to race on the courses I use for weekend training ;)

Image Maps

I am currently working on building image maps for the CIA website assignment. My goal is to produce an image map with selectable polygons surrounding the country of Hungary. Part of my assignment is to become an expert on the geography, people, economics, resources and military of Hungary. I plan on visiting Hungary one day and maybe spending some time at Lake Balaton.

What's playing?

Group: Incubus

Song: Aqueous Transmissions

Pure Speed

This blog is dedicated to the SR-71 - an aircraft developed in secrecy by the Lockheed Skunk Works division in the late 60s. It was developed as a reconnaissance platform and could reach a maximum speed of Mach 3.2 at 85,000 feet. The "Blackbird" caught my attention at a young age and fueled my desire to learn about aircraft. During grade school I would run to the library on lunch break to read Proceedings (http://www.usni.org/proceedings/procurrenttoc.htm) a magazine dedicated to the cutting edge technology in avionics and aeronautics. A few neighbors were pilots in the Navy and I would learn how to detail models on the weekend using their airbrushes. In 6th grade a pilot named Reed taught me a few things about flight and stressed the importance of Bernoulli's Principle (http://www.amasci.com/wing/airfoil.html) Reed was killed in a flight exercise over San Diego when his plane collided with another P-3 Orion. R.I.P. Reed
Do you have a favorite plane?

Here is a cool site with loads of SR-71 stats - http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/sr-71/
SR-71 Nicknames: "Sled", "Habu", "Lady in Black", "SR", "Blackbird"

Right as Rain

Another beautiful day in the city ;) It's a co-workers b-day and we're taking him to Pancho Villa's on the Embarcadero. I woke up feeling great this morning and motivated for my presentation this evening. A group of us watched the Superbowl last night and my father won $200 This weekend is going to be off the hook :) I plan on an epic snow trip with some friends and a huge party in San Francisco later in the evening.

What's playing? Paul Oakenfold

The Oracle: Oh, don't worry about it. As soon as you step outside that door, you'll start feeling better. You'll remember you don't believe in any of this fate crap. You're in control of your own life, remember? Here, take a cookie. I promise, by the time you're done eating it, you'll feel right as rain.

The Weekend

Christine is on her way to Costa Rica as I write this blog. We hung out at the airport cafe before her flight and watched the planes depart and dock at the terminal. Jon and I are going to ride UC this afternoon in Santa Cruz and I look forward to some fresh mountain air. I spoke with my brother this morning and convinced him to download Skype :) Christine's co-worker created a binder full of AC/DC sheet music with a play-along audio disk. A group of people went to a lake last summer and rode wave runners and camped near Yosemite. In the evenings Chris (her co-worker) and I would play the guitar for people after dinner. Chris was jammin' some tight AC/DC songs all night and I wanted to learn their songs. So out of the blue comes this book of AC/DC songs on a disk with sheet music - NICE!

My Hobbies

I used to build model airplanes and ships when I was a teenager in high school. I loved working with the tiny moving parts using tweezers and needles to paint or glue. The best part of a model has always been the cockpit of a fighter jet or the mechanics behind a swing-wing geometry configuration. The swing-wing geometry is found on board the F-14 Tomcat and the B-1 Bomber. The wing configuration looks normal as the aircraft takes off to maximize lift or to maximize the hovering capabilities. Once the plane is airborne and needs to achieve greater speeds - the wings will swing back into a delta-shape allowing the aircraft to reach supersonic speeds. I really enjoy the concentration involved in building a model and the hand-eye coordination needed to paint the avionics panel in a cockpit. During hard times in my life I have always fallen back on building a model aircraft or ship to channel my energy towards something positive. Right now I think it is time to purchase another model while Christine travels to Costa Rica. The past year has been a giant balancing act and things have been getting stressful on the home front. I feel it is time to visit an old friend and build a few models to relieve these feelings. Models are a lot like relationships. You are never going to see a perfect set of parts before production but there are tools and other accessories you can find to help repair those problems. I would always get frustrated with how the intake system on an F-18 or F-14 would never set flush to the fuselage. Eventually, I learned how to use putty to seal the cracks and fine sand paper to blend the surface. This would seal the gap between the two parts leaving a clean line along the body. The purpose of the comparison above is not about making a situation perfect - it's about using all the tools available to repair a broken part. We should not settle on a split fuselage or cracked wing - but we should be able to say we did everything in our power to make it work.

More Class

I had a good time at class last night. We presented the CIA websites and gave brief descriptions of the changes we made to the original source code. We spent most of the class discussing proper user interface design and ways to guide the user through the site. I've been going through some rough times in my life and hope things work out for the best.

Current Level of Stress - 11 out of 10