...but not this year; I'm actually going to train, unlike last year where I got on the mountain bike for the first time in 4 months for the race. P.S. Patrick moved out to NI's RF group in California, so he's out this year... so I need to start racing with the big boys so they'll let me on their team. Enough tooting the horn, here's what I've been up to:
Spent 4th of July at an old friend's place on the hill:
Later on while Scrabbling at Spider House, I found an exact copy of a statue I had at my childhood home:
My buddy Andrew has been home-brewing for months now getting ready for a block party. He ended up getting a few other neighbors interested and together they hauled in 10+ kegs of liquid splendor to a remote corner of the beautiful Northwest Park on Shoal Creek (note the obviously nominal 'no alcohol' sign):
I reunited with some old friends and met some new people, too. One of the girls (Margaret) had a pretty cool story that I thought ended where I left it, but it turns out I ran into her again at this strange outdoor genius' property over in east Austin. I'm at a loss to describe what exactly the place was, so I'll call it a hippie commune that isn't afraid to serve beef. It's a wonderful page out of my childhood: fort-like single person shacks with intricate names strewn about the remote woods, a large open grill with travelers -- interns -- exploring themselves through their young adult lives; an opportunity to create, explore, succeed, and fail, all in a safe environment. The ultimate goal was described as creating green solutions in architecture, but there was so much more that words can't describe. If I weren't entrenched in a 9-to-5, this is where I'd be.
Margaret had this enchanting aura that was really engulfing. As a group, we walked around the grounds to multifunctional building structures, unique ideas, and in general explored the creativity of a bunch of like-minded souls crafting united thoughts in total isolation, just miles from Austin. I left this dream unsure of the 'deliverables' -- as an engineer I try to feel out the goals -- but after a week of thought on this, I now realize that living in this dream is enticing to the creators of the world, including myself. I'll keep this heaven in the background in case my life ever finds me wandering.
Then we had a moving out party at the Ledge:
I kept myself sober 'cause last time I ended up sloshed enough to derive satisfaction stepping in meat:
I also met two really cool kids while bouldering at Bull Creek: Jake and Shannon drove down to Austin for the weekend and ended up running into yours truly on a Thursday (?). I offered Jake some artificial handholds for real cheap and when he came to pick them up we ended up chatting, jumping off the roof into the pool, listening to music, etc. They ultimately stayed over until the following Tuesday, which was perfect because 3 of my room mates had just moved out and the 6 room Ledge was feeling quite empty. I'm not one that believes in superstition, but UFO's scare me quite a bit.
Jake, Shannon and I went climbing at Reimer's Ranch, open water climbing at Pace Bend (I almost made it to the top :), etc and I had a great time. They'll be back in Austin in a few weeks and I hope to chill again.
Some time before this I got single again, which necessitated me bringing the ex's belongings back. Figured I'd test the Big Dummy out with that:
Today is the official start of NI Week 2010, which is my employer's yearly trade show. I found this 100% electric race car that'll go 250+mph with two 200HP AC permanent magnet electric motors and a ~60KWh LiPo battery (that's 38 times larger than mine). The entire car runs off of a cRio that NI donated. I'll want to grab their source code if Lee and I go through with our electric Insight idea.
So now I'm sitting at my new place after several days of unpacking. I've gone 4 days with no power from the city and am therefore currently using my solar panels and deep cycle batteries with a modified sine inverter. The pure sine inverter died about a year ago, but everything's working pretty well with the 'dirty' power:
Wires heading SW are to solar panels... I fried the charge controller by plugging it in backwards, even after ohming it first to make sure I was doing it right... it was late.
On the left are some fans, for when it's really hot.
White box is inverter connected to deep cycle battery.
Surge protector connects my laptop, the light in this room, extension cords to power lights in my room, garage, bathroom, etc:
Alas, the crap-sine inverter won't run the Carvers, so they sit idle... I hope the heat and humidity doesn't damage the mylar planar film. I opened the pure sine inverter up and found the problem by forcing as much current through it as possible until the failing (shorted) component went up in smoke... and now I'm waiting on the new version of that part to arrive in the mail. Total price for part with shipping: $1.07. Total saved by not just buying a new inverter: $154.
Other than the speaker and record concern, not having AC isn't bad at all. It's been 102, 101, 100, 98 over the last 4 days, but with the windows open and the slight breeze it doesn't get over 88 inside. Since I don't have power, I don't have hot water, a microwave, stove, washing machine, dryer, or any way of charging my bike, so I'll definitely need power eventually, but for now I'm content riding my bike over to the roommate's new place and mooching their power; I pay $0.15 to their power fund after each charge, which is a lot considering how little power I use ;)... I can't run the charger at full power at their place because it pops their old-home's circuit breakers, but this just means it takes longer to charge... time to play some pool, jailbreak iPhones (hence the fact that I can post this post), and help the old roomies move in.
I did find out real fast that not having water is a baaaaaaaaaad thing, so I turned the underground valve on and have kind of been mooching; I'll get billed for the difference when I do finally sign up, and hopefully just a slap on the wrist at worst. I don't condone stealing, and stealing I am not -- I wrote the original meter number down -- so don't steal shit, ok?
Most people get rid of shit they don't want before they move, but I never got around to executing. After moving 5 full truckloads of crap, I found myself appalled by the volume of excess I've amassed, and can attest that getting rid of it afterwards results in a lot of junk moving. The plus side is that since I have no roommates yet*, I have plenty of space to spread everything I've accumulated out on the floor and evaluate what I do and don't need. Thus far, the 'get rid of' pile is quite large:
...I've come to terms that I don't need three tents, two sleeping bags, 2 heaters, 10 power cables, 2 old laptops... expensive headphones and amps, refrigerators from college, extra fans, a second Dremel, or the myriad of other shit you see above... so I'll be selling it all on craigslist. This pile -- along with a similarly sized pile in the garage -- represents ~60% of what I've accumulated in the last 2 years... and I CAN'T WAIT to get rid of it. I'll firesale whatever's left after the vultures leave...
In the far corner is the relatively small pile of stuff I intend to keep:
On the left (out of frame) is a pile of stuff that I need to bring back to work, or to other people. In the middle is the unsorted crap.
And here's the bird that helped me finish up some soldering tasks... Anna found him stuck in a crevice by her window:
As I mentioned previously, I intend to write more about my everyday travels now that the ebike is becoming less eventful....
*Lee is moving in in a few weeks, but I am going to house a friend's brother for a couple weeks because he really needs a place to stay.
