Holy nice looking trials bikes, Batman!

Wow, all sorts of new trials bikes hitting the market. Trials continues to grow. I continue to ride my outdated Brisa and make no improvments in my riding... Check these out though, they're very nice looking... All from the same parent company, Echo (from China).
Anyone trying to find a christmas present for me???
GU Typhoon 26"

GU Typhoon 20"

Czar Ivan 26"

Adamant A1 26" in Gold

Adamant A1 26" in ninja mode

And my favorite color scheme...

Here she comes...

Weakened to a Cat 4 (as was Katrina), but still pretty huge.

another hurricane update

000WTNT33 KNHC 221735TCPAT3BULLETINHURRICANE RITA INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 20ANWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL1 PM CDT THU SEP 22 2005 ...RITA WEAKENS A LITTLE FURTHER...REMAINS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUSHURRICANE... A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FROM PORT O'CONNOR TEXAS TO MORGANCITY LOUISIANA. A HURRICANE WARNING MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONSARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TOCOMPLETION.

Hopefully people are getting the warning this time...

Color Change

Decided to change the color a bit. I like green...

comments...

In order to keep from getting spam as comments, I turned on a word verification thingy. So, if you want to leave a comment, you'll have to type some weird format letters... Just a head's up.

Watch out Texas!

Hurricane Rita upgraded to a Cat5 this morning... Headed for Texas Coast... Uh oh.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
"000WTNT33 KNHC 221138TCPAT3BULLETINHURRICANE RITA INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 19ANWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL7 AM CDT THU SEP 22 2005...POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE RITA OVER THE CENTRAL GULFOF MEXICO...SLIGHT WEAKENING IS ANTICIPATED TODAY. A HURRICANE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE GULF OF MEXICO COASTFROM PORT MANSFIELD TEXAS TO INTRACOASTAL CITY LOUISIANA. AHURRICANE WARNING WILL LIKELY BE REQUIRED FOR PORTIONS OF THEHURRICANE WATCH AREA LATER TODAY."

Christopher Walken For President

http://www.walken2008.com/index.html
It actually sounds like he's serious... He could just scare the terrorists away with that creepy look of his.

Talk Like A Pirate Day.

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

Wanna know why me Roger be so Jolly? Arrrr....

Puppy dog number two... for now...

So, took our normal walk with the puppy on Saturday (like we do every day). On the way back, we come across a dog crossing the road a ways ahead. We didn't want him to be wandering in the road, so we called him over to us. Turns out he had no tags, was ridiculously skinny (ribs and backbone clearly visible), and there was no owner in sight. We hung around the area for quite a while hoping his owner would show up, but none did. We were near the tennis courts and I found a tennis ball. I threw it for him, but he just sat there. Then I told him to go get it, and he sprinted after it, and brought it back and laid it at my feet. Aparently, he's been trained to retrieve.
Anyway, he's a yellow lab. Pretty young by the looks of his teeth. He's very muscular (though might look so because he's so skinny). Not neutered, yet. We took him home and fed him and all that stuff. For now, we're calling him Sam. He and Zephyr are having a blast together, playing non stop. We went out to a catfish pond on SouthFarm on Sunday, and he sure did have fun swimming around in that.
So, we'll be taking care of him for a while. The Shelter is full at the moment, so we may be taking care of him for a while. We'll put an ad in the paper as soon as one of us gets a chance...
Here's a few pics I took of him last night...


Warp speed puppies...

Big dummy.

Cutie-pa-tootie.

Mortal Combat.

Horrible.

Bay St. Louis, MS - That used to be a bridge...
Finally found some imagery of the Gulf Coast damage. It's unbelievable. Very sad.
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/KATRINA0000.HTM
Thousands of images, arranged by location...

well said...

turtles and minnows and a gecko, oh my!

(The softies in a bowl while I clean the tank)

Dang. Stopped by "the ditch" this morning just to see how the turtles were doing, and I caught two more softies. So now I'm up to six of them. I'm going to have to put most of them back pretty soon, since 6 turtles (even little ones) in a 10-gallon aquarium is a bit crowded. Anywho, I'm walking up the stairs of the geology building, and something scurrying around catches my eye. I figured it was a roach or something, but it was the wrong color. I look down, and it's a tiny gecko! What the heck is a gecko doing in the geology building?! So scooped it up too. Not sure what I'm going to do with the little bugger just yet (he's <1" long). Maybe I should have been a herpatologist.
Kristen is doing well so far with classes, though we still haven't had a FULL week, since labs got cancelled last week due to hurricane, and we had Tuesday off. We have Monday off as well (for Labor Day). I'm sure she'll be able to do it, but I sure hope she doesn't get even crazier... :)
Still don't know where I'll be doing my thesis, though it seems down to Guam somewhere or Bahamas somewhere. I'd rather do Guam, so Kristen could come along and take classes at the University of Guam. Either way, it looks like I'll have another grad student working with me, since Mylroie doesn't like to send people off exploring uncharted caves alone. I wonder why...
I'll keep you all posted.
How are all of you that read this?

New Orleans...

Wow.

New Orleans is doomed.

Looking at some pictures on the internet today of the damage around New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf coast... Man, it's very bad. No wonder everyone kept calling to make sure we were alright. It's really unfortunate for everyone down there that lost people and posessions. Hopefully, people will learn from this, and evacuate when they're told to. Hopefully, New Orleans will be abandoned and the river will be allowed to run its course. I know New Orleans is a hugely important city (5th largest port in the world) and historical, but the place is doomed. Subsidence of the delta is going to continue and get worse. As with all things geologic, it's only a matter of time before the whole place is inundated. If the Mississippi river hadn't been engineered and leveed for so long, it would have switched it's main channel to the Atchafalaya to the west. But, that would have been bad for New Orleans. Well, look at it now. It'd probably be cheaper to rebuild the whole place somewhere else. Nature will win in the end, and it looks like she just had a major victory. I can't imagine parts of the city being under 20 feet of water. That's just ridiculous. Regardless of the history and prosperity of the city, it's time to give up on it... There wouldn't have been this catastrophic flooding in the first place if the city wasn't built on the FLOOD plains of the Mississippi. Levees won't protect it forever. Anyway, it's tragic what happened, but I sincerely hope the people will build elsewhere next time, though I know that's not going to happen. Instead, they'll spend billions building and beefing up the levees, probably build some storm sea walls like in Texas, then get destroyed in the next 50 years by another hurricane or flood... Sigh.

Turtles!

So the other day I happened to be down near one of the many drainage ditches on campus, specifically the one that runs from the tennis court area/intramural fields toward southfarm. I look down and happen to see a small softshell turtle. Well, my old turtle catching instincts came right back. I didn't have a net, so I fished a soda bottle out of a garbage can and scooped him up with that. I was rather stoked. I was giddy about having a turtle again. I kept him in a tupperware thing over night and went back the next day (today) to get some water and sand for him. I found another one and caught him as well. There were also some of the familiar red-ear sliders, but they were all too big for me to keep, and also an adult softshell (8" diameter or so shell). Went to Walmart and got a 10-gallon aquarium for $10 to keep them in. Went back to school this evening, and stopped by the same ditch... caught 2 more! So that makes 4 baby softshell turtles. They seem to have plenty of room in the aquarium, and I went to Eckie's Pond to get some more water and managed to catch some minnows as well. I'm keeping the aquarium in my office here at school. Kristen didn't like the smell of the pond water, can't blame her. It's also pretty murky, so I'm probably going to work something out better this weekend. I might have to find some cleaner sand or something... Anywho, there's a picture of one of them, they're all about the same size (2" diamter shell). It's fun to have turtles again, but I have a feeling my vegan office-mate is going to be grumpy about me torturing them or something (it's Kevin Toepke, Teal ).

Hurricane Katrina

Well, she didn't amount to very much up here in Starkville (NE Mississippi), but I guess the Gulf got hit pretty hard. There was some minor wind damage around here (sticks and branches all over the place, a few big trees down here and there), but there was a ton of rain. I think probably 6" or so for the whole storm. Started raining here around noon and kept getting worse until 9pm or so. Around 5 or 6, I went out to south farm to play in the rain and wind. It was gusting strong enough that you had to lean into it. The rain was blowing sideways the whole time, though it wasn't really a torrential downpour like a normal thunderstorm. The creeks were quite flooded, especially some of the smaller ones that cut across fields. The big one that runs parallel to the main road on S.Farm (Catawba Creek) was probably about 4 feet from flooding over. And that is a very deep little stream valley...
So yeah, not a whole lot of excitement up here, which I guess is a good thing. Not even a tornado watch. I love crazy weather...

more mammoth pics

Ask if you want to know about any of them...

mammoth pics

Meatloaf, rediscovered...

Ahh... I remember all those cross country trips we took growing up, listening to a small selection of tapes in the old '88 Subaru... I remember Sting, Tracy Chapman, The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Buffet, George Winston, and of course Meatloaf - Bat out of Hell. Well, I just realized Kristen had Meatloaf's greatest hits a few weeks ago, and I've been listening to him quite a lot lately. I have a whole new appreciation for him. It's great. Not to mention it brings back memories... So you should go listen to Bat out of Hell, Paradise by the Dashboard Light, Two out of Three Ain't Bad, You Took the Words Right Outta My Mouth, etc., etc... It might make you smile. Works for me. :)

Heather and Dave finish their thru-hike!

So, my friends Heather Henningsen and Dave Manz from UMaine had been doing a northbound thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Heather is a geology major, so I knew her from class. Dave I only know through her, and from talking about the AT. I actually gave a presentation on my thru-hike for them before they took off this March. They summitted Katahdin on August 11th. They hiked almost the whole way (from what I gathered) with a guy named "Snowdog". Some of you might remember my trail name was "Corndog". Anywho, here's a few pictures from Snowdog's online journal at www.trailjournals.com . It's amazing how much technology has changed since I did it, only 5 years ago... digital cameras, online journals...
Enjoy... By the looks of them (and my rusty memory) these pictures are from Vermont north...
First picture is Franconia Ridge, NH (Mt. Lafayette)
Second is Snowdog (left), Heather, and Dave (right) enjoying some "trail magic"
Third is the same three on Mt. Washington, NH
Fourth is some vista in Vermont probably
Fifth is some pretty lake, probably NH
Congratulations you two (if you happen to come across this site). I want to do the AT again so bad... Kristen and I are planning to save up and do it when we're out of school. Sigh...

Skewl is so kewl.

So, first day of school. Haven't had class just yet, but my schedule doesn't look too bad. I'm not sure how the teaching part (TA) is going to go, but I don't have to worry about that until next week. Kristen's got a load of courses, but fortunately she doesn't have to go far between classes. Anywho, I've got to switch one of my labs around...

Mammoth Pics...

I've got some pictures from Mammoth Caves now, but the connection here is too slow to upload them. Pretty soon, I'll upload them from school or something. Here's a preview... (Mylroie in green and I, helping the school teachers negotiate a "tricky" spot...)
Oh also, I got a free BMX cruiser (24" wheels). Needs a crankset and some other small bits, but should be a nice sprint to school sort of bike... It was lurking in the storage at the bike shop, and Mike said I could have it... :)

crazy pup

Quick picture of Zephyr being cute...

Mammoth Caves

Well, I'm tired right now, so this will be short.
Mammoth Caves were really cool. Got to see lots and lots of some of the world's finest caves. Spent a lot of time on the tourist trails, and quite a lot of time on other rinky dink ones as well. Fortunately, we had access to the park after hours, so we went in when the tourons had all left. We also got to see caves that are closed to the public, and went on routes that are definitely not advertised. I even went into one cave that Dr. Mylroie had never been into. So yeah, saw lots of cave, did some pretty tight squeezes and crawling, and had a good time. One nice thing is that the temp in the caves is a constant 54 degrees F. Nice and cool. But 98% humidity, so you still sweat plenty if you're working hard. I didn't take any pictures, but lots of other folks did, and I might get some of those, which I'll put on here later or on the other place with pictures...

Eh?

wildhorse fools
Originally uploaded by willapajames.

A few Pictures from field camp... I think everyone was imitating Dr. Evil from Austin Powers... I'm in the back somewhere...

Group Picture at Wildhorse Canyon, Idaho.

wildhorse group
Originally uploaded by willapajames.

All of us near our campsite in Idaho. On the last day...

Craters of the Moon

craters group
Originally uploaded by willapajames.

Here's a picture of the whole group at Craters of the Moon in Idaho. These three pictures were taken by our director, Dr. Frank Pazzaglia, aka Dr. Evil. Actually, he's the guy in the front row with a red jacket and a Yankee's cap. My friend Kate is on the far left in a yellowish coat...

Speleology

Met up with Dr. Mylroie on Wednesday. Just went to talk things over about school a bit, but he ended up taking Kristen and I to lunch as well. He also offered to take me to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. I guess he has to teach a field course there all next week, and he offered to take me along! Pretty sweet. I've never spent much time in caves, so I'm eager to see if I like it. Before, I've been to Ape Caves (lava tubes near Mount St. Helens), Carlsbad Caverns (huge limestone caves in Arizona), and some more lava tubes at Craters of the Moon in Idaho. Anyway, since my thesis with Mylroie is likely to involve lots of caving, I figure I'd better find out of I like it. So, I'll be spending all next week in Mammoth Caves National Park. Aparently, he has keys to most of the park, so we'll be able to go into the caves after hours, when there's no tourists. Possibly even at night, but hey, it's dark in there anyway. Should be a good time.
Not much else is new. Haven't been getting too many hours at the shop since it's pretty slow, and I have to share hours with that other kid, Doug. So it's about 4 hours, every other day. Better than nothing. I doubt I'll be able to find another job when I'm back from Mammoth, but I might try. Kristen and I are pretty broke at the moment. I don't start getting money from school until September, so we're living pretty cheap now... cheaper I guess.

Still no pictures I'm afraid, but my friend Kate is supposed to be sending me some of hers. Teal tells me (he called yesterday) that he's headed up to Alaska again at the end of the month, though not to the Aleutians this time. I'd love to go up there and visit some day. Alaska sounds cool. That's the only reason I regret not going to Lehigh... I would have been working on the Matanuska glacier somewhere up there... I'm happy with my choice though. :)
Well, I've got two books I'm supposed to read before I go to Mammoth, so I'd better get on that.

Hurricane

So this Hurricane Dennis turned out to be pretty wimpy. I wasn't expecting much since we're so far inland, but I don't even think we got thunder and lightning. Not enough to wake me up anyway, and that usually doesn't take much. Oh well, I haven't checked, but I suppose it wasn't too bad for the people that are silly enough to live in Florida.
I started working at the bike shop on Friday. Things went pretty well. It's amazing how much I can get done when I don't have to deal with customers and kayak stuff like I did at the kayak shop in Maine. Don't get me wrong, I loved that job, but working on bikes was always frustrating because there were a million other things that had to be done, people that needed the tides explained ("Where'd all the water go?", "Some drought this year huh?"). Not to mention dropping small parts into the water or through cracks in the deck. But I loved it. I miss Maine. I really miss being on the water. I miss the breeze and the lack of humidity (most days). I wonder how the shop is running this summer... and who's working there... Good ol' Tidal Transit.
Back to the bike shop here though, Saturday I worked with another mechanic (besides the owner, Mike). He's some highschool kid (well, he just graduated). He's quite a good mechanic, better than me at a lot, so it made things a bit more stressful since I didn't want some kid to be correcting me. Turned out he's a nice guy and we can learn from eachother. I can assemble a mountain bike a lot quicker than him, but he can smoke me on a road bike. I haven't seen him do any repairs yet, so I don't know how he does with that. It doesn't matter though, it's not a competition.
Kristen has started another summer term. This time it's Calc 2 and French 2. She's good at the math, but her French is a lot harder this time. She'll still do really well in it I'm sure. In the fall, she's planning on taking 23 credits or so, which sounds insane to me. She's determined to get done the same time as me, AND she wants to do a double major. AND she got work study, so she'll have to get a job on campus. She is crazy, but she'll pull it off somehow.
Zephyr (the puppy) got spayed on Thursday, but she's pretty much back to normal already. Don't want her to get too peppy yet, because she still has stitches in for another week and I don't want her to pull them out. Gave her a rawhide bone to chew on today so she doesn't run around all over the place. So far so good. It's like marijuana for puppies. Keeps her busy and calms her down... She always has the munchies anyway...
Still haven't gotten my pictures developed, and it'll probably be a while since we're very low on money at the moment. I may put up a link to pictures from someone else on the trip, and my best friend from the trip, Katie, is supposed to be sending me some as well. Not to mention some awesome CD's we listened to ("Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, You give love... a BAD name!"). :)
So here's some links to some other people's field camp pictures:
Mike Ksionzyk
John Frame
That's it for now. Enjoy.

I'm back.

Hey everyone,
I made it back from my field camp course today. I'll write some more later, but I'll just say this for now... I had a good time, learned a whole lot, made quite a few friends, got sunburned several times, and even was the subject of some scandalous rumors (which were a complete misunderstanding). I'll eventually have a ton of pictures and a lot more to say, but I'm pretty tired from all the traveling on the way back, so I'm gonna go to bed now. Maybe more tomorrow but that's it for now.

zephyr

hmm

Looks like Kristen tried to post some pictures of Zephyr, our puppy...
It takes a special program which I don't think she has on her computer... I'll do that as soon as I get home. I'm in Pinedale Wyoming right now, and we're moving on to Idaho tomorrow. More than halfway done so far. I can't wait to get home. It's fun to be out here doing the mapping and all, but I miss a certain someone a lot...
I've seen all sorts of cool geology so far. I don't have time to talk about it now, but I'll update it when I get back.
Hey! How come no one has left me any comments?!?!
PS - real glad I chose MSU over Lehigh...

hungry zephyr

some real quick important info...

Phone # at apt. in mississippi: 662-320-8975
Shipping address in mississippi: 105-1/2 B Jarnagin Street, Starkville, MS 39759
We got a puppy from the shelter. Mostly lab we think, but kind of orange, and smaller than a lab so far. Only 5-6 months old. We decided to name it zephyr, which means "the west wind" or "a gentle breeze". Other possibility was pumpkin, because she's orange in color, but that was too cutesy for me. On a related note, she farts a lot so far... so a name to do with wind suits her...
I'm at Lehigh as I write this. 2 Day bus trips are not fun at all. I never want to have to do that again, but I have to get home somehow...
Kristen just had a birthday on the 3rd or June. She's liking her classes and Mississippi pretty well so far. She loves the puppy. I'm sure she'd love to hear from all of you.
I will be out of touch pretty much starting when I sign off of here. I'll call Kristen occasionally, so if you want to know what's up with me, you'll have to ask her.
Word. Have a nice June. Don't be a prune. Listen to a tune. Gaze at the moon. Don't go so soon. My bike is maroon. I once saw a raccoon. :)
Seeya!
PS - I expect to get all sorts of replies and comments... hint hint.