New House

 Tracy and I just bough our first house!! we're very very excited. It was a long process but got valuable help and wise counsel from good friends and family. almost everything is moved in now. The new house is right off Greenville Ave. - it is to Dallas what Broadripple is to Indianapolis, but bigger and more...frat-tastic. it has its eclectic mix of people, music, bars, and restaurants. nice fun place in the city! pics are from before we moved in. hopefully we'll get some pictures up from Tommypalooza (bday party) and the housewarming party.

Commute is extended by 2 miles for a total of 4 miles. No problems! I get to know the regular bike commuters too and what they ride. they're a really interesting type. its a completely separate culture ... a bike culture. These guys are pretty brazen riders too. I for one will keep my helmet on and obey general traffic laws, I don't need another close-call. check this video out on some dudes who ride fixies. fixies are fixed gear bikes (you can't even coast) and no brakes generally. just as simple and minimalistic as they come...requires skill too. http://youtube.com/watch?v=F0AFpq6jFok

Kitchen

bedroom

To the rooftop terrace

rooftop terrace with city view - awesome at night!

another view of greenville ave.

My boss is sending me to a 3-day nano nerd camp next week. it should be highly interesting. debating whether to sport the pocket protector or not. Well, nano nerds will inherit the earth and someday (October, 2031) build this

space elevator out of buckyballs and nanotubes and then inherit space too. they even have a countdown on their website. Their motto is "change the world or go home" I like the motto in general but in the context of building a space elevator... what is THAT supposed to mean?  theoretically its possible, romantic to think about, but I don't think it'll happen. In fact, I hope it doesn't happen. what if it falls down and wraps itself around earth a few times?? nano space-nerds will have to go back to home/earth. somethign to think about. and the other 90percent of the world could use engineers to solve problems closer to earth. my two cents.

bedtime.

I'm getting faster on the bike and becoming more aware of the cars and intersections on my commute through dallas and into the train station. Last week I got hit by an SUV in an intersection...close call but I stayed on my feet and it bent my front wheel just a little bit. I was upset 1. because they drove off and 2. I should have seen the could-have-happend before it happened instead of assuming what should-have-happend will happen. I'll post a video of my morning commute shortly.

I find myself slipping into nostalgic moments recollecting our time at purdue and butler univeristy. jobland is fun too but it is a different type of boring...you can't sleep. I enjoy the majority of the work/research I do but definitely don't like the generation Y-er label the boomer workers and execs compartmentalize the younger engineers into. I'm pretty sure generational identity of Boomer, Buster, X, Y, and Pepsi's Next are all a giant marketing ploy to generalize people and create a market where there isn't one. that being said, this is all just a new challange, a new battle and different rules, different people. I'm still waiting on my free helicopter ride. looks like Chris and Sean from school will have the pleasure of riding in a Bell Helicopter before me. (they're in the marines).

Project Caddoo 1.2 (fuel pump replacement)

I had decided to put road tires on my cyclocross bike to get a faster ride to and from work. it worked very well and I can keep up with the traffic through downtown and even go faster than the cars sometimes but it has been monsoon season (or something like that) here in dallas for the last few weeks and the road tires do horribly in the rain. I'm gonna put the stock knobby tires back on so I can stay on the road and not hit any more cars. I might go a bit slower too.

Tracy and I have been playing phase10 almost every night now. its a fun game.

Huffer bunny has been acting strange. She might be getting pretty old I'm thinking. anyone know how long domestic bunnies live to?