Bicycle lists

Well... I finished my tour of Lake Michigan, and my bicycle is still in one piece! Huzzah! You may be happy to know that I mostly stopped taking painkillers after leaving Green Bay... increased milk consumption may have been a factor (see below). Now here are some lists. I really like lists.

LESSONS FROM THE ROAD
-Roadkill comes in many shapes, sizes, and colors, but it all smells the same.
-SECOND BREAKFAST. It's very important. I can barely do ten miles without it.
-If you see a huge bag of popcorn on the side of the road... just keep pedaling...
-Stuff your shoelaces into your shoes! Who knows, it may prevent you from falling off your bike in the middle of US-31 and frantically scooting onto the shoulder while you try to untangle things.
-Dogs do not like bicycles. Huge, fast dogs with sharp teeth REALLY do not like bicycles.
-Drink a quart of milk every day. Just do it. (NOT in one sitting.)
-Don't count how many chewy granola bars you're eating one after another. (Hint: At least four.) Just eat and be merry.
-Having to stop and go to the bathroom may be a nuisance, but on the other hand... you're dropping dead weight!
-To dry underwear after a rainy day: Build a huge fire and suspend the underwear on a stick about six inches from the fire pit. (Note that this will also add a subtle smoky flavor.)
-Don't think, don't feel. Just PEDAL.

STUFF I HATE
-Semi trucks (though I do enjoy the vacuum they leave behind, which can provide a burst of speed)
-RVs
-Mosquitoes and everything they stand for
-Strip mall areas (they're really lousy to ride through)
-Unmarked roads

STUFF I LOVE
-The "Lake Michigan Circle Tour" signs
-Roadside parks
-Friendly strangers
-Being surprised to find myself at the top of a hill I don't remember climbing
-Riding on closed roads
-The Upper Peninsula
-Cows
-Hardcore cyclists who take one look at my bike and quietly think I'm insane

ROADKILL RECORDS
Most frequent: Frogs
Saddest: Housecat
Smelliest: Skunk
Freshest: Doe
Most swerve-worthy: Porcupine
Coolest: Complete turtle
Most disgusting: Assorted turtle parts

Lake Michigan bicycle tour update!

Ahoy! I'm currently at Susan's house in Green Bay, getting very sleepy. I've had seven days on the road, with 415 miles on the odometer so far. Today was a day off. I took care of some bicycle maintenance and got a tour of Green Bay. Tomorrow I'm taking off bright and early for Menominee, MI, just past the border into the UP.

The secret to long-distance biking, I discovered, is massive amounts of painkillers! My left knee has been giving me grief from day one, so when I ride I'm usually hopped up on acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Drinking lots of milk has helped somewhat. Also my left middle finger has been half-asleep for days! :/ Still, I'm in good spirits and eager to hit the road tomorrow!

Some fun memories so far:
-Being the only sober adults in a campground in Covert, MI.
-Conversation between Jeremy and a motorist in Gary, Indiana: "Where you fellas riding from?" "Holland, Michigan!" "You crazy! You crazy!"
-Smoking a damp roll of toilet paper over a campfire.
-Cooking chili dogs over a campfire with Todd.
-Getting milk at gas stations.
-Riding "7 Hills Road" with Todd - the most exciting, grueling, and beautiful section of the trip so far.
-Laying down on the side of the road, eating peanut M&Ms.
-Todd's colorful bicycle seat complaints, which I will not repeat here.
-Staying with lots of great people! (Thanks!)

Lent

I am giving up TIME WASTING for lent. More concretely, I am giving up:

Facebook*
Instant messaging
Online comics/blogs**
Television***

I hope to spend my newly-gained time doing the following:
Reading
Cooking
Studying
Praying
Conversing
Walking
Biking
Cross-country skiing

Hold me accountable!


*Except when advertising for swing club
**Except those written by friends and family
***Kind of pointless since I rarely watch TV anyway...

Almost there...

The semester is finally almost over! Here's what's new with me:
-My new PC game, Lexcess, is loved by all! The next version will make the distribution of vowels vs. consonants more fair.
-My desktop computer (the Beast) is broken... it won't turn on at all. Luckily my XO laptop has been behaving quite well lately. I'm excited to fix the Beast because I want to check out JavaFX, a new tool for creating multimedia web applications (comparable to Adobe Flash). Flash is expensive, JavaFX is FREE. Over break I may try to make a simple game and put it up on the Benson Basement.
-I have two exams - Programming Language Paradigms (Monday) and Multivariable II (Wednesday). I also have a portfolio for my poetry class due on Wednesday.
-Next semester I'll be doing a paid/for-credit programming internship at LeanLogistics, a logistics company in Zeeland.

Confession: The real purpose of this posting is to draw attention to the fact that I've appended to my Christmas list.

Christmas List 2008

-Spore
-WALL-E
-Very large SD card - at least 8 GB (several smaller SD cards won't do the trick)
-New shoes
-MP3 music gift cards (e.g. Wal-Mart, Amazon)

Fall '08 update

I'm long overdue for posting on here! So here's what's up with me this semester:

I'm taking eight credits of creative writing, four credits of computer science, and four credits of math.

For my fiction class I must write 30,000 words of completed short stories in October. Currently I have 10,124 words, between five stories (one still unfinished). I'm supposed to have 15,000 by the time I go to bed tonight.

I have a love-hate relationship with my poetry class, and with poetry in general. Right now: I'm cool with it.

Math sucks. Multivariable II is basically just a bunch of formulas and bookkeeping - there's very little intuition required. This is why we built computers - so we can free up our minds for more interesting problems. And (perhaps ironically, being a computer science major) I'm very very slow at computing things.

My computer science class (Programming Language Paradigms) is pretty cool because we're really stretching our understanding of what a programming language can be. And we're mostly self-teaching, which is my preference for this kind of thing anyway. Also, we didn't have to buy any textbooks, so that's pretty awesome.

I haven't had a heck of a lot of time for "fun" this semester. I've spent a grand total of about 3 minutes playing video games while at Hope - and Spore came out a month ago. My "Chew Witcha Mouth Closed, Brotha" gangster rap is just as incomplete as it was the day school started. I haven't done a lick of 3D modeling. But fortunately, I've been enjoying cooking when I get the chance. Here is a list of stuff I've cooked, with varying degrees of success: Mozzarella sticks, chicken schnitzel, fried cod, cheesey chicken strips, green bean casserole, cheese soup, calzones, pizza, homemade ice cream (vanilla and Snickers flavors, blueberry ice cream topping, no-bake cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, carmelized onions, french fries, lefse (Norwegian potato pancakes), vegetable stew, mashed potatoes, meatballs, gelato (strawberry, nutella, and peanut butter flavors), chocolate chip cookies, stir-fry, chili, quesadillas. I probably forgot a few things.

Now here are some photos, encompassing DeGraaf cottage, the Vienna reunion party I hosted (and making schnitzel for said party), camping in Kelly's backyard, and homecoming.










For a bonus, here's my favorite poem I've written for class so far. It's sort of about our dog Buster, but I took some liberties. It's a work in progress.


To my aging dog

Like a shabby marriage renewed in terminal illness
My love for you is reborn in your dawning senility.

Remember that time you cried all night?
I remember it like I was there.
Now, sand in your hourglass slips through my white-knuckled fingers.

Your arthritic, underwalked legs mosey from bed to couch, couch to bed.
Your bowels just don't give a crap anymore.
Your tail is listless.
Your ears - wait - can you even hear this?

...Well?

Whatever, just stop crapping on the carpet, ok?

Snarflax screenshots

I've been working on a roguelike game (tentatively titled "Snarflax") for a few weeks now. It takes place on a space station (at least for now).

Here are the first screenshots! Click the thumbnails to see the full-size images.