I've been a little busy the past few weeks with a few things. Kristy and Chad had their wedding a few weeks ago. It was a really great wedding and it was really nice to see all my friends from Green Bay all together at once again. There are quite a few pictures from people on Facebook, so I guess if you want to see them you can check the tagged pictures on there.

There has also been some good TV and movie watching lately. I saw The Dark Knight last week and I was pretty impressed. Batman Begins is one of my favorite movies but I think The Dark Knight even tops that. Now that I have finished Buffy and Angel I have also started watching Arrested Development. I really can't believe this show was canceled so early. It really shows how horrible Fox is at keeping good shows around.

Labels: biking, tv, weddings

Things around here have actually been pretty busy lately. Now that work has started I don't have all day to sit around so the weeks have been going by a little faster. I haven't posted in a while though so I'll here are a few things that I've been up to.

I have been looking at purchasing a road bike since last year and I finally broke down and got a new Trek road bike last week. I was planning on saving the purchase for later in the summer but after riding with Mike, a friend from work, I saw that road bikes were obviously superior for the long distance rides that I do. I took the bike out for the first rides this past Saturday and Sunday and I am amazed how different this bike is compared to my Trek hybrid. The bike is much lighter and much smoother while riding, as long as you don't hit bumps. I should get a lot of use out of this bike for many years to come.



Both of my bikes have cyclo-computers which track my speed, mileage, and cadence. I really enjoy using them because it helps me get a feel for if I'm improving my time or cadence over separate bike rides. In order to better track everything, I made a page on my site to log each 'real' bike ride that I go on. I put a bunch of information in for each ride and the page will also calculate averages and totals for all the rides. If you want to take a look you can find it under stuff or you can click here to visit.

Justin and I have been playing a lot of Lego Indiana Jones for a few weeks now. We both really enjoyed the Lego Star Wars game so the Indiana Jones version was an obvious choice for some multiplayer action. So far we've found it to be a little glitchy at times (somehow we got 4 billion studs, which is the game's currency) but very fun. We're attempting to get 100% in the game which will probably take a few more weeks.

Shortly after moving I purchased an entertainment center cabinet to store my electronics in. I believe I may have mentioned this earlier, but my living room has a built in hole for a TV which has little/none space for other things like DVD players and my Xbox 360. After putting some wiring in the walls, thanks to my Dad, and picking up my cabinet I have found out that the cabinet is really not designed very well... at least for someone who loves TV/electronics as much as I do. The doors on the front close very tightly and there are only small ventilation holes in the back which are all full of wires now. I became concerned that my things would be ruined if I ran them too long in this setup. In fact, I ran some tests on my media computer and it got to about around 60 degrees Celsius which is much too hot for a computer. My Dad found some vents online that are made for media cabinets so I purchased some of those and plan to put them in the cabinet to hopefully fix this problem. Of course I first need to buy a drill, which I have been putting off for a while now since I don't feel like driving to Lowes which is on the opposite side of town.

Along with the cabinet, I also purchased some end tables for my couch and chair. They look really good with the colors of my furniture so I'm really happy with them. Eventually I'll get around to posting some pictures of everything setup once I finish hiding speaker wire.

Speaking of the speaker wire, speakers were also a problem once I setup my new receiver. Apparently the receiver I purchased does not output analog audio through its digital audio out port which is what I was relying on it doing. This meant I would have to buy digital cables and hope that worked but then the Wii would have no sound at all unless I found a digital audio adapter for that. The easier fix was to buy new speakers, which ended up being a nice option. The result is now 5.1 surround sound in my living room compared to the virtual 6.1 (I think?) speakers I was previously using. Now my problem is trying to hide the speaker wires for the back speakers, which I will also have to deal with shortly.

I think that's all for now. I'll be pretty impressed if you actually made it through the whole post.

Labels: bike log, biking, home theater, xbox 360

The TV shows have started again. The Office is as funny as ever and Heroes is still pretty good. A new show called The Big Bang Theory is absolutely hilarious. It's on CBS right before Heroes, if you want to check it out. It's about a bunch of nerds living next to an attractive woman. It's really, really funny.

It's been raining almost every day for the past week or so. A week ago I did go up to Copper Harbor geocaching. It was pretty nice weather, although a little windy. I took some pictures if you want to check them out. There are some pretty cool caches around the area that have to do with mines. I'd like to check those out sometime soon.

It's also been really windy when it hasn't been rainy the past week. I did find the time to go biking once or twice though. I ended up breaking my bike pump and I only bought it this summer. That's what you get when you buy some cheap thing from Wal-Mart I guess.

Halo 3 is pretty good, but didn't live up to the enormous hype that surrounded it. The campaign is pretty short but still decent and multiplayer is really good like normal. I think Bioshock is a better game overall, but I'm sure most people won't agree with me.

Labels: biking, geocaching, halo 3, pictures, tv

The webcam is back up. The leak in my ceiling *might* be fixed but I won't be able to tell until it rains really hard again. Because I'm sick of waiting I just pulled the desk far enough away from the leak that it won't get hit by anything that comes down. Anyway, I put the webcam back up so you can enjoy the Hancock traffic.

I've officially accepted a job at the place I've been working at in Rochester these past few years. I will probably be starting sometime in late May after I pack stuff, move, and do various things like get a new license and plates for the car. It will be nice to be able to not have to worry about looking for a job this year and just focus on fun (I guess school too).

Halo 3 comes out tomorrow and should be delivered to my door around mid-day, I hope. I usually work 8-1 Tuesdays, but I might start a little earlier so that when I get the package I can play it more quickly. I guess people are loving it so far as it has a 96/100 average score when I wrote this.

The bike trainer was kind of annoying to setup. The instructions were decent but the pictures they refer to were too small to figure out what they were talking about. It was also annoying to put my bike in the trainer but I think that was more due to my bike's design in the back. It fits though and it will be nice having this when it's too cold out to go biking. I briefly tried it and it appears to give a realistic road experience. I think it might be a little easier resistance than a road, but I'll reserve judgment until I do a longer ride on it.

Labels: biking, davecam, halo 3, job

Yes, 225 more days until graduation.

I ordered a bike trainer today at a local store. I was planning on buying one for this winter so I could keep biking but since it's been raining lately I decided to get one now. I guess it will be here in a few days.

The webcam is offline for a while. My ceiling is leaking near where I keep my computer and I don't want to risk having it be ruined so I moved it somewhere else but it's not currently hooked up.

Labels: biking, davecam

As promised I've put up some new pictures. I never got around to posting pictures of the house I lived in last semester after coming back from my co-op. The house was pretty crappy and everything was old/broken. You can see the pictures here or in the pictures section. I also got around to taking pictures of my new place in downtown Hancock. You can see those pictures by clicking here or by going to the pictures section.

There isn't too much new going on with me. This is the smallest credit load I've ever taken so I really don't have much to do a lot of the time. I'm sure I'll get some CS projects pretty soon though, not that I want to do them or anything.

It was finally a reasonable temperature yesterday to go biking again, although still chilly. I finally found a place to ride long distance that isn't extremely hilly. It's really not a bike path but more of a shoulder on a not very busy road. Hopefully I'll get to do more of that before it gets too cold out.

Bioshock is a pretty awesome game. Now that my XBox 360 is back I finally am able to play it. I'm not entirely sure how far I am in the game (I'd guess about 3/4 of the way done) but it's been really fun. I think the game would be even better if I had my nice speakers here, but the apartment seems to have thin walls so I decided to keep them at home until I graduate.

Labels: biking, bioshock, pictures, school

I'm all moved in at school now and we're in the second week of classes. After looking at my degree audit I noticed I didn't need one of my classes so now I'm only taking four and don't have class Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am working again Tuesdays and Thursdays though. However, like the title of this post says, school is boring.

The apartment here is pretty nice. The building is around 100 years old but the inside has obviously been renovated since then. There are more electrical outlets in my apartment than there were in the whole entire house I lived in last year. Eventually I'll get around to uploading some pictures of it as well as the house I lived in last year. The one problem is I wish that big trucks didn't drive downtown Hancock because it's hard to hear the TV or talk on the phone when you're near the window when it's open. I guess it won't need to be open for very much longer since it's been getting cooler out.

Microsoft finally sent me a repaired XBox 360. It was sent to Green Bay since they only ship to your billing address, but I should have it in the next few days. I'm glad it's back now because in 13 days Halo 3 comes out and I can't miss that.

I've found that biking here is a lot more tiresome than in Rochester. There aren't many bike paths here that are paved but even the ones that are have modest hills in them and I don't seem to ride hills very well. I've found a few roads that are a little hilly but are manageable that I've been riding on so I'll probably stick with those. Now that it's been getting pretty cold I've been shopping around more for a bike trainer. It looks like I might have to buy one online as the stores here aren't very helpful or don't know what I'm talking about.

The travel bug I sent out a while ago has made its way to Germany. I don't know if I mentioned that earlier or not, but someone took it from Texas to Germany and it has now moved around several times within Germany. I think it's pretty cool that it has wound up all the way over there. You can see where it's been by clicking here. I've done one geocache since I've been here that was around my apartment. I should look for a few more, since there are several within a short distance of my place, including one that is right across the street.

Labels: biking, geocaching, hancock, school, xbox 360

Yesterday was a pretty fun day. About 10 people from work, mostly in Justin's department, and I went down to Lanesboro, MN to the Root River bike trails. It was a good chance to get to use my new bike rack that I got right after school ended. It's a small one, only fits two bikes, so I just took my bike and Justin's bike. We rode between Lanesboro and Peterson and back which was about 27 miles or so. The cool part about the trail is how it goes through some small towns along the way. Unlike the Douglas Trail in Rochester, the towns have little places to stop and get things to eat or drink. In Peterson we stopped for a break and got ice cream and refilled water. We also went out to eat at a place called Pedal Pushers when we got back into Lanesboro. Overall, it was a really fun trip. There was talk of doing another trip sometime so that would be fun too.

Other than that, nothing else is really new. Next week most of work is going to a Rochester Honkers game, so that should be pretty fun.

Labels: biking

It was nice to have a long weekend, not that I really needed it or anything. It was nice to do stuff outside, watch movies, and that sort of thing. Went to a friends house Saturday to play some multiplayer Wii then spent some time outside on my bike and out on walking trails around Rochester.

I'd like to take my bike to a path near a river about an hour south of Rochester but I think I need to ride it a little bit more before I go long distances. This weekend I went out a few times and it was pretty fun but pretty exhausting. One of the times I ran into an older couple geocaching at a local park. I stopped to talk to them, since you don't see that every day. It was their first time and they were trying to figure out how to use their GPS. I'm not sure if they ended up finding anything or not.

Since I ran into other people geocaching, I thought it would be fun to do today. I went looking for three of them in the area. Two of them were from a park within walking distance and the other was a little further away but also in a really nice park. I actually couldn't find one of them but I'll try again some other time.

I'm watching the playoffs right now. The Jazz are losing by a little bit against the Spurs. I've only seen a few of the Jazz games this year, all playoff games. Deron Williams is really a great player. He's like John Stockton except scores more points. Although I think he does give up more turnovers and his defense isn't as good. But this is only his second year. It will be interesting to see how good he is in another two or three years. The announces constantly compare his passes to Carlos Boozer to Stockton to Malone passes. They run the pick and roll just as well as those two did.

The Cubs keep losing, no surprise there. Their team is really good except for their bullpen. I believe they are near the top of the NL in batting average but their bullpen has lost over 10 games for them already this season. They need to trade for some good relief pitchers. If it were up to me, I'd try and trade Matt Murton. He's really good and young so can probably fetch some decent pitchers. The Cubs have several good outfielders in the minor leagues so I think they could deal with losing one.

Labels: biking, cubs, geocaching, jazz

The end of my junior year, that is. This is the last week of classes for this semester so I'll be free next week Thursday, after my last final. This semester really wasn't bad at all. It might be because I was only at school half of the year, but it really flew by. I think the work experience I had greatly helped me in school work. I seemed to plan out my assignments a lot better which resulted in better code.

I start work again in Rochester on May 14th. I'll move there the week before that to get settled in though. Todd, my parents, and I are also going to see former Cub and hall-of-famer Ryne Sandberg coach the Cubs minor league team, the Peoria Chiefs, play the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Obviously, we will be cheering for the Chiefs and I will be sporting Cubs apparel.

Speaking of the Cubs, they have been absolutely terrible in close games this year. They are last in the division right now at 7-12. The pitching has been pretty good, at least from Lilly, Hill, and Marquis. Wade Miller has been terrible and Zambrano hasn't been himself though. Hopefully that gets sorted out. Hill has been amazing though. He's 3-0 in 3 starts and has an ERA of .41, which is ridiculous. He's pitching tonight so you can bet I'll be watching.

I read a Cubs blog called The View From the Bleachers and they mentioned something I found very interesting the other day. Someone said that he's encouraged by the fact that Derrek Lee has not hit a homerun yet. I'll admit I've been kind of nervous that he hasn't, but he has been red hot in batting average. The point that the poster made was that this means that Derrek Lee is likely to get even hotter than he is now. Imagine a lineup with Derrek Lee hitting BETTER than he is now along with a also very good Ramirez and a Soriano who has to be getting hot soon as well. The Cubs will be able to score a TON of runs.

Anyway, back to Rochester. I'm excited to move back and start biking again. It's been really nice out and I've really wanted to get out on some trails. I'm planning on going at least 3 times a week for long rides. I also just purchased a bike rack for my car so I'll be able to drive to some trails I've never been to around the area.

Labels: biking, cubs, mtu, rochester