Yellow Bike Ride

Today on my way back home from German, I found and grabbed a yellow bike. It happened to be bike number 62, which was also formerly a cruiser. I'm not sure if it's one of the newest ones, or if they've recalled some of the old ones for some more refurbishment. I've also recently seen one of the old mountain-bike style Yellow Bikes, which looked like it was fairly well-refurbished.

It was weird, almost disconcerting at first, getting on the bike, which is a cruiser, and starting to pedal. Unlike my mountain bike, I can't push the pedal backward at all, in order to reposition the pedals to get the bike started easier. Once I got going, the feeling of riding the bike, somewhat rickety as it felt, was exhilarating. I sped by people on the ped-way, followed and rode by other bicyclists, and  I even charged Cardiac Hill, fast at first, slowing down gradually as I reached the steepest part of the hill, almost stopping at the peak of the hill, right before the upper road crossing.

Gliding, relieved from the apparent lack of effort involved in going forward on mostly flat ground, I rolled through the small parking lot in front of Gabaldon and dismounted the at the front entrance, leaving it propped up against the handrail, otherwise claiming "no bikes on handrail," mainly realizing that the bike would be gone within an hour anyway.

Afterward I was very tired, I'll admit I haven't excercised as with a bike ride in a very long time, especially what with nuclear winter having extended itself so very long. Maybe this summer I'll see if I can get my bike up here at the university.

Awful Headache

I don't know why, but this school year I've been getting frequent, very painful headaches. Like, more than three times on an average week. The unfortunate thing about it is I spend much of my time either applying generous amounts of HeadOn (directly to the forehead!), or spending more time than I really should sleeping.

Today, I'm spending more time sleeping.

And to think, I originally wanted to write about now Nikon had received the D300. Long story short: It's a B2 repair, which means it's a moderate repair but they need to replace major parts. There was also a notice about how there's some parts they might need that they don't have too very many of. Also, it's all free under warranty. I can't wait for them to send it back!

Visiting Kingman

I've been in Kingman for a few days, at Dad & Brenda's house, and my brother has been here as well. It is very relaxing, even after only a day or two, to be in Kingman. It is exactly what I wanted to do this year, after a stressful semester, and a stressful week after finals, to sit down on the couch in dad's house chatting online and looking at train pictures. I've looked at every single Amtrak and Amtrak California photo on railpics.net

Another side-effect of visiting Kingman was going to work with dad, which I enjoyed well enough before he got DSL there, but I really do like sitting there, somewhere else, and browsing the Internet. It's better for my back I think.

I might also get a haircut while I am here, not sure yet.

Wicked Avenue Rent Express-- The Extreme Acid Jazz-Polka Musical.

If you could create a musical, and/or your life (or your ideal life) were a musical, what would it be called, and what kind of music would it have?

My musical (maybe not my ideal life, but my ideal musical. :P) would be called Wicked Avenue Rent Express , and would have the subtitle "The Extreme Acid Jazz-Polka Musical." It would basically be about junkie wizards and witches who live in a cheap, run-down apartment building in New York, Oz. They'd also conduct train (or trainwreck) races -- in which magic, talking, quite-snarky trains race around quite uselessly. (because it's somewhat dangerous to ride the train, given how fast they go.)

I'm actually not yet sure what the musical of my life would be though. I need to work on that a bit.

It should be a bit obvious what I've been listening to recently.

Also, I've been reading the Gregory Maguire novel "Wicked" subtitled "The life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West." It's very good. I've actually got the sequel here too, a Yanni CD, and the first LoTR novel. I intend to catch up on some reading and whatnot. I found out too that I can place holds online, and (in theory, though I've yet to test it) have them make their way to a specific branch of the Mohave County Library System. In this way, I intend to make fairly regular trips to the now-walking-distance Valle Vista MCLD location. Summer of Reading! Yaay!

It's also worth noting that I recently discovered the "Indoor Walking Machine" aka the treadmill. Quite a nifty device, which I'm taking advantage of by using it. I found that after an hour or so, I can work up quite a sweat on it, which is cool because I think that means it's helping me achieve my lofty goals of losing the "Freshman Thirty" (Come on, you can't think I've been denying the fact that I'm a bit chunkier than I was at the start of the school year.) The Treadmill also (niftily enough) can be attached to an audio device (such as my iPod) to provide a form of entertainment (midis converted to MP3s by iTunes) while I'm walking (but not actually leaving the house.)

My goal is to return to the weight I was before I started at NAU. Unfortunately, even if I do, it may not do me any good, as I'll just be back at NAU again next fall, probably following the same eating patterns. Though, I do admit... my food intake patterns probably didn't hurt my GPA, so for now I'm not complaining too bitterly.