Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Nomen's LiveJournal:

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Monday, March 3rd, 2008
7:34 pm	break out that chainmail armor... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Denial_System So, this is pretty cool from a tech perspective but really how effective is it going to be when people realize they just need to wear metal chainmail with holes smaller than 3.2mm to block it out. And how long before people figure out that they can reflect the ray at other people? Kind of makes me want to go to G8 summits with foil under my clothing and see if I can reflect the beam at VIPs just for fun :-D (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
10:29 am	Is this news? ok so there's a video being circulated of Heath Ledger at a party where people are doing blow. I've seen blow done in fucking classrooms for christ's sake! If anybody's got footage of Ledger doing a Belushi while being blown by a prostitute with HIV then... I still don't fucking give a shit but I'll understand if other people do. Until then... the public needs to get a fucking life. Go to a party where someone's doing cocaine if it makes you feel better. Or just stay home and have a good wank. But deal with this ridiculous fixation on dead celebrities! And now the obligatory "out of respect for the Ledger family" part of the post... Heath was a talented actor. His passing is a great tragedy. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 5th, 2007
2:48 pm	more retarded policies from China... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071005/ap_on_re_as/china_organ_transplants So, basically the Chinese aren't going to harvest organs from people they execute anymore. As far as I'm concerned that makes the execution WORSE... adding wastefulness to barbarism and inhumanity. The article above says that harvesting the organs is a potential violation of "personal, religious or cultural beliefs". Umm, but shooting the prisoners in the back of the head with an SKS isn't? If you're going to institutionalize barbaric and ineffective social policy you should at least harvest some damn kidneys! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 29th, 2007
10:56 pm	yeah she asked lots of questions... I said in my post below that I woke up feeling interrogated but what I meant was invigorated. How I managed to mess that up I don't know because I am quite familiar with the difference between the two. But that is neither here nor there. So, I've been keeping busy. I'm feeling healthy again and have been doing a little running. I'm gonna do the Homecoming 5k on Campus next weekend (oh what a stereotypical activity for the athlete alum). I'm really curious to see what I can do it in. My general fitness is way higher than it used to be when I did 5Ks but I haven't been running at all so I won't be surprised with anything between 18 and 20 minutes. I'm also gonna do a half marathon in Loveland the first weekend of November. My goal is to go under 1h30m which would be pretty cool. So... girl who claims to not be interested can't stop texting me (I wonder if she reads this?... doubtful). So, either she really does "value [my] friendship" so much so that she texts multiple times a day for no apparent reason; or she's interested and just doesn't know it; or she's engaging in some rather odd games. Dubya tee ef? The first answer is the most likely but it seems so odd because nobody ever values my friendship because I'm pretty much a shitty friend. I mean, I'll come pick you up if your car breaks down, and I'll probably even fix your car for you, but chances are good that I will ignore you for months at a time as well (just because I'm busy) and in my experience that tends to drive friends away. That reminds me, I gotta go see Michelle. I haven't seen her since May and she no doubt thinks I'm a huge asshole for ignoring her for the last 5 months. Anyway, the point is, dubya tee ef? Anyway, it doesn't matter, I'm too busy with other stuff to worry about it much. And Jen is fun to be friends with so even if it comes to nothing I'm cool with that. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
1:24 pm	Cancun and shit Well I'm back from Cancun. The whole Jen thing crashed and burned. She thought we were just really good friends. Whatever. I was pretty down yesterday while flying home but I woke up this morning feeling rather interrogated (although still a bit off from the large quantity of high fructose corn syrup I consumed unknowingly 2 nights ago). Anyway, I suspect this trip made serve as the impetus for some upheaval in my life. I actually spent quite a bit of time considering a retirement from cycling but realistically I know that's not going to happen. I am considering a lot of other changes but I don't want to do any knee jerk reactions so I'm going to give myself a week or so to ponder before I start burning bridges. My life is so analogous to the evolution theory of punctuated equilibrium. Nothing changes gradually. It stays the same for extended periods before veering wildly to a different heading. And I'll end with a quote that seems somehow applicable to my whole situation, and perhaps one that I should occasionally remind myself of. A shiny rubber ducky to anyone who can attribute the quote without googleing it "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
12:11 pm	weird I was just looking at the Google satellite image of Southwest Dublin where my father grew up. I found the Culdesac where he lived as a boy and then thought about his mother and the fact that I haven't seen her in a decade. And I remembered that she doesn't live in that house anymore because she moved into a nursing home. And I wondered for a while if I would see her again before she dies. And then I remembered that she died last spring. Very weird feeling. (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 30th, 2007
11:07 am	OK I'm going to disagree with Dan for once http://www.thestranger.com/savage The first letter, from the chick who identifies as a guy... I hate to think that my perspective on this is the result of traditionalism. But seriously, what is the problem? So the chick likes boys, and wants to be one, but is hampered by her enormous jugs. Just wait a few years I guess. The geeks in high school are afraid of boobs. The geeks in college are often afraid of boobs too, but they're getting curious enough about them to not mind having a pair hanging around when they're pulling all nighters playing Counter Strike (OK I'm dating my college years but that was the game of choice when I lived in the dorms). So, umm, yeah she should stop worrying about what her body looks like because in a few years she's gonna meet some special boy who thinks she rocks and he's gonna love that his best friend also has a huge set of boobs. This might not be quite the same as having an unwanted set of boobs, but for years I hated that I am bigger than my older brother. He's skinny and looks like a distance swimmer while I'm about 30lbs heavier at the same height (and probably about the same body fat percentage). But then I realized that if properly carried my frame can pick up chicks and while I am still afraid to actually talk to girls I take comfort in the fact that I'm genetically capable, should I ever give it a go ;-) (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007
11:57 am	Vlad should work out more http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070822/481/6b58fe25aa19494ab8be11c01c173cd3;_ylt=ApnzxRXoZ_09dCKzylrWp0MDW7oF Vladimir Putin took his shirt off while fishing and everybody's making a big deal out of it. I've been riding my bike to work with my shirt off and nobody seems to care (except the freshman girls who are naturally all aswoon at the site of of my toned abs ;-) But what strikes me about Vlad is not that he took his shirt off while fishing but rather that he's a flabby bastard. He's got that "I used to work out" look going on. Let this be a lesson to all you guys out there... you can never work out, and go for the skinny look, or you can work out and go for the muscle look, but once you've committed to the muscle look you can't stop. Well, you can actually, but you have to starve yourself for a few months so you waste away and it looks like you've always been skinny. If you just stop working out you end up with fat replacing the muscle and you look like Vlad. Oh so sad. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
1:44 pm	protect the weirdos! http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=75480 Weirdos have been macking on chicks for as long as there has been macking (indeed I think it's the weirdos who started the whole macking bit). So when some weirdo sheriff's deputy tries to pick up an 18 year old chick at 12:30 on a weeknight at a gas station shouldn't we really just feel a little sorry for him? Besides, think of it this way... we clearly don't ever have to worry about this guy wanting to have a gay marraige. Realistically we probably don't have to worry about him getting married at all, but if he does it definitely won't be to another dude. So even the neocons who would like to see all the weirdos LoJacked should be happy. They printed police sketches of this guy, and now his name is being printed. In fairness they really should also print at least a faceshot of the chick he tried to pick up. Cause the one thing I'm left wondering is if he at least had good taste?! (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007
2:05 pm	the happenings of Will Well let's see. Superweek was pretty awesome. I sucked, the races were hard, but I FINALLY felt like I was doing the kind of workouts I need to do to get stronger. Of the 7 races I did I finished 2 and came very close to finishing a 3rd. Had 2 really bad days (Cedarburg and Kenosha) and two mediocre days (Waukesha and Sheboygan). Then I drove home and 18 hours later flew out of DIA for Portland. Was in Portland for 2 days and then flew back. So last night I finally got to sleep in my own bed again but alas I could not sleep so I did some work stuff until 2 and then finally fell asleep. This weekend is Denver Federal Center (where I got 2nd last year in the 3s) and Bannock (where I got 10th in 2005 in the 4s) so 2 courses I know I can do well on. Hopefully I can do something respectable in the P12 this year to maintain my streak of doing well the first weekend of august :-) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
12:29 pm	lining up ducks! That's right, I'm getting all my ducks in a row. Actually since I'm getting them in a row instead of a line maybe I should have titled this post "rowing up ducks" but that engenders images of accidentally scooping ducks out of ponds while rowing a boat and since that isn't what I'm doing I'll stick with lining. Anyway, I just registered for superweek races and applied for host housing. I had planned on going out for the whole thing and renting an apartment but I don't have the fitness to justify that so I'm just going out for 6 races and I don't really want to rent an apartment for the month of July when I'm only going to be there 1 week. Hopefully I get a cool host. I'm doing all crits this year for a total of 590km of racing. Should be good. My first race is Waukesha which I didn't do last year, but I watched it. There is a crazy fast downhill corner where you go gutter to gutter to gutter which I'm a tad nervous about but it will be fun. I just worked it out... I'll race through over 2000 corners while at Superweek. That should make me better at cornering. Gotta change my oil this evening or maybe tomorrow and then generally start getting my car ready to drive to Wisconsin. Oh yeah I also got the time off work :-) (Comment on this)
Friday, June 29th, 2007
11:57 am	bike to work day? Well Wednesday was bike to work day which is extremely lame because it gives all the yuppies a chance to easily assuage their guilt by leaving the car at home once a year. But in more personal news this is, I believe, the first week this year that I have not driven to work at all. Shameful that we're halfway through the year and this is the first time, but it's been a rough spring with weather, tonsillitis and saddle sores. Besides, I'm making up for lost time by riding almost everywhere again, which feels great :-) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007
1:55 pm	06/26/2007 #26 Pseudo-Mead 2 Went down to Golden for the Pseudo-Mead race last night. Pretty good sized field in the P123 including 2 pros (Jonathan Garcia and Jason Donald). 18 laps, every 3rd lap is a sprint lap with points going 5 deep. I chilled out at first, then decided to win the second sprint, which I did, got counter attacked and the break went away. It was 8 guys at first, I tried to bridge but went from 2nd wheel which was too far up and the pack was all over me. The break whittled down to 4 and I tried to bridge again. Went from farther back this time and had no trouble getting away but the gap was 20 seconds and the 4 up front (Donald, Garcia, Christian McCarthy and a guy named Jorge (Espinoza?) who won last week) were really flying. I got really close, but couldn't seem to finish it off. Next week I just have to be smarter and either make the break from the start, or make it the first time I try to bridge. I rested up for the sprint for 5th. I struggled really badly in the last lap trying to get position, managed to come through the last corner (~500m out) in about 6th position but then the guys on the front sat up and I didn't have the legs to jump on a wheel as we got swarmed. Sat up and rolled in mid pack. For the first half of the cooldown lap I was really bewildered... not having legs in the last lap isn't something I'm used to. Then I remembered I'm coming off by far the hardest week I've ever done... overall a good night, considering that. Tonight is Wednesday Worlds... we'll see what I can do with my fatigued legs :-) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007
11:17 am	preview... I rode across campus on my way to work today. It's crawling with incoming freshman, in town with their parents for preview. They all look so young. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 25th, 2007
10:36 am	Sunday's ride Sunday was definitely the most epic ride I've ever done. Left my house at 12:30, didn't get back until 7:30. Of those 7 hours I was only off the bike for about 10 minutes (5 quick water stops). Anyway, the route was thus: Stadium Hill, Masonville, Eaton Valley, Rattlesnake, keep going over the top of Rattlesnake and follow Pole Hill Rd up to Hwy 36 and then descend into Estes Park, descend 34 to Eaton Valley, Masonville, back to FC. I had never ridden the section from the top of Rattlesnake up to Hwy 36 before. I checked it out on google maps... it's 20km, mostly dirt, and seemed like a perfectly rideable road on the satelitte image. It was insane. It starts out as a crappy paved roads with signs periodically that say STOP PRIVATELY MAINTAINED ROAD NO PUBLIC ACCESS but I wasn't to be deterred. The pavement turned to dirt and there was a lot of climbing. Then the dirt turned to loose gravel, sand and large rocks. In this loose section there was a 12% climb, 1km long (I gmap pedometered it afterwards). I made it up that but knew I couldn't ride down it (the surface was too loose) so I figured I was committed. Ended up climbing over a gate with a nice NO TRESPASSING sign, riding some really unmaintained double track with lots of climbing, climbing over another gate (The NO TRESPASSING sign on this gate was 1/4" plate steel and had 11 very clean bullet holes in it... the prospect that someone up there was using armor piercing rounds is enough to deter me from trespassing there again I think :-) Some of the dirt is so bad that even a normal SUV would get stuck... you'd need a lifted, geared down SUV or an ATV. Anyway I finally got to Estes Park and then came home over the hills (haven't come home through Loveland in ages--it's cheating :-) Hopped over a snake in the road on the dirt coming into Eaton Valley which gave me nice warm fuzzy feelings for the end of my ride... would have felt bad if I'd hit it. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
1:45 pm	hmmm Well I did Pseudo Mead last night in Golden. Apparently a break of 5 got away and stuck it but I was riding at the back conserving because it was dead calm and not too hot so I figured nothing would get away. Long story short I got in position on the last lap, was on the right wheel, and then felt what I thought was a cleat coming lose. Frustrating but I figured I'd just have to sprint in the saddle and I'm still respectably fast that way so no biggie. I made a mistake about a kilometer out and gave up some position but I was 6th out of the final corner (550m to go) and started moving up. I had made it up to 3rd (or maybe 4th I forget) position and was really flying when my left crank arm fell off. Completely. It was still attached to my foot, but not to the bike, so there I was, in an uphill sprint, 200m out, with one useable leg and a crank hanging from the other one. I was able to get out of the group easily because we were all single file and the false flat uphill made it easy to coast to a stop. Fuck. That's a new reason for me not winning a sprint. Anyway, even in the saddle I was coming around guys and there were 3 very solid sprinters in that line so I guess that's a good sign. Next week I'm racing to win it. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 18th, 2007
9:01 pm	back on dubya dubya dubya Finally got a wireless router today which means there is no longer a cat5 cable strung across the kitchen into Lila's room... and I have internet on my computer now :-) Lila and I are going to Pseudo Mead tomorrow. I'm racing to win. Lila's racing to finish. We'll see how that goes. It's a great course for both of us so hopefully Lila will get some training and I'll get a much needed confidence boost from actually being there at the end to sprint. Early to bed tonight in preparation :-) (Comment on this)
10:14 am	new bike! :-) I bought a new bike yesterday. Saturday was the Hugo RR and it was miserable. My old bike was creaking and squeaking and otherwise embarassing me and there's so much stuff broken on it I don't think anyone else could actually ride it. For example, the chrome on the front brake caliper got eaten by MgCl2 (or a hydrate thereof if you wanna be technical about it... and I do :-) this winter. So the polished surfaces that slide against one another are no longer even remotely smooth, so the spring isn't strong enough to fully re-open the brake once I've pulled it. So I reach down and open it manually after I brake. Fubar. Anyway, I decided that cycling was becoming too stressful and that a new bike would remove a lot of that stress so I sprang for another one of the same. Scattante R-660 at Performance. I brought it home and set it up... seat height and angle, bar adjustment, remove the state-mandated reflectors, and then I went to put my pedals on the new bike... only to find I can't get them off the old bike. They've been on there for just over a year now and I think I must have not greased the threads when I put them on. So they're really in there tight. I took the bike to Full Cycle but the mechanic couldn't get them off either. So the bike is lying on it's side in the living room with Liquid Wrench soaking into the pedal threads (hopefully). This evening I'll have another go. If that doesn't work I guess I'll have to disassemble the pedals (to get the plastic bits away from the axle) and then try dry ice and a blow torch. As exciting as that sounds, I'd really rather the pedals just come off tonight. I rode my bike to work today for the first time in a while. Felt really good :-) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007
10:38 pm	Drugs in cycling Too many cyclists talk about drugs. In a sport riddled with drug abuse at the top, amateurs using it as an excuse for why they don't do better isn't helping things any. I've talked to a lot of cyclists about this, some of whom speculate and some of whom have been very close to the whole drug thing and the best comment I've ever heard on the whole matter was from a guy who retired when he was 18 because he wasn't fast enough... he said simply "It didn't matter, there were guys who were clean who were faster than me". So true. Anyone who isn't 100% committed to their training has no room to bitch about the drug abuse. Because the guys doing the drugs ARE 100% committed to their training. I know I'm not training at my full physiological capacity... so when someone is faster than me I just assume that they're training more than me. (Comment on this)
2:19 pm	mmm, rain I climbed Rist yesterday after work. Rode steady tempo to the base of Rist, then pushed pretty hard up the climb. It rained on my on and off up the climb which was kinda cool. I pulled my arm warmers up before I went over the top but it was still really cold going down the back side. I managed to put my knee warmers on once the descent flattened out. Hit the section from Stove Prairie down to Masonville pretty hard. I'd never done it in the rain before and some of the curves were a little tight but I forced myself to stay off the brakes for most of them which felt good. Only ate a bar and 2 GUs and I felt a little bonked by the time I was coming back into town. Total ride time of 3 hours. I haven't done a solo training ride in the rain for a while and it felt good. Afterwards I sat on the couch, played Tetris for a little while and then went to bed. Felt really good to be getting back into the training routine, rather than going out in the evenings. I do miss the fries and cheese fries at the Trailhead though! (Comment on this)