Commute

Can I just say how sick and feckin' tired I am of people driving and the commute in general?!?!?
Jebus Cristo, I even drive the opposite way of the main traffic (morning = N -> S, Evening S-> N), and I still cannot seem to break out of the dumb-asshatery that is most Utah drivers. I mean really, does it take that much common fuckin' sense that if you are going slow in the fast lane and someone comes up behind you going much faster that you should get out of the way? I personally wouldn't think so, but then I can use my brain and drive at the same time. This and soooo many other annoyances are driving me out of my car and onto my bike. Yeah, I figure since I shelled out the cash for a new cycle I should get the most out of it. SO, my plan goes something like this: In the morning I will cycle down to the Ball park trax station and ride it down to 100th south, then I can ride my bike over to the Jordan river park system, and then right to my work. Then, coming home, I can just reverse that order. W00T! Ok, so... lets see.. uhm... how much is a trax pass.. Ok, UTA will tell me. uh, click, click, fares, click... FUCK ME SIDEWAYS SALLY! $50! Are you fucking joking me? Sweet Mary, that is about half of my monthly gas allowance.

Lets do some MATH.

Andy sets aside $120 for gas to get him everywhere. (yeah, I drive an SUV.... fuck off.)
so if I half my gas needs to say $60 a month, and then purchase a trax pass for $50... hmm... I save a whopping $10 a month if I Trax it up to work. gee... thanks UTA, you make it so appetizing to want to use trax.

well, I still think I am going to do it. or at least try for a while. Even with the minimal saving, I still would rather deal with UTA than drive through another rush hour.

New Bike

I got a new bike on Friday, used a chunk of money from my bonus to get it. I did a bit of research before going and I am happy with my choice, I just wish I wasn't hung over today so I could go for a ride. My final decision on the bike came down the trek 6000, it was mid-range price wise and it had all the features I was looking for. So, yeah, I am looking forward to commuting via train/bike. Feck off Oil Barons!

Logical Andy gate

Listening to: Chelsea Hotel By Leonard Cohen

Well, here I am again at the threshold of a new job. Tomorrow is my last day at iBahn, and as I look back on the past year, I have come to a number of conclusions and discoveries.

Numero Uno: Work to live, live to play

With work comes Money and with money comes fun. But, you have to remember to give yourself breaks to get out and enjoy the finer things in life. if you get stuck in a job that doesn't give you much free time you need to analyze if this is really what you want to do. Money is not worth it if you cannot live.

Number Zwei: Never back down to a good challenge.

This is what drives ingenuity and sparks creative thinking. I have been lucky to have been placed into a place where i was challenged on a regular basis, and I think I proven myself under some very stressful conditions.

Number 00000011: Documentation IS important.

I cannot remember how many times I wrote code too late and too sloppy to be readable in the clear light of day. I finally learned how important it is to write at least a few comments on what I have done and where I left off. became very sick of re-writing code because I couldn't figure out just what in the hell I was trying to do. :)


The most important thing I have learned though, is never let a job suck your soul. No money is worth being a slave to a corporation. Freedom is paramount to a successful life.


Cheers

Vacation all I ever wanted...

Ahhh.... I am just now coming down off my vacation high. 5 days of Hiking, Biking, Scootering, and drinking. Life is good. Felecia and I just got back from Glenwood Springs Colorado, we spent 4 days there taking in the sights. we did a 16 mile Bike ride, a 2.5 mile hike (which ended at a hanging lake, very pretty, I will include a picture soon.), and numerous excursions into town.
Today we finished off our vacation with a scooter ride with English Rose scooter club, a very fun ride to Tibble Fork Lake up American Fork Canyon. It was a good ride with good people, Tall J even brought up his camera kit and took some cool pictures of us on our scoots.

It is going to suck to go to work tomorrow.

5k

at 6:30am Katie, Felecia and I all got up, brushed the tiredness out of our eyes and stumbled down to Liberty Park to start the 5k portion of the Salt Lake marathon. up until the moment the race started I was filled with doubt about if I reallllllyyyy wanted to be doing this. BUT, the moment the band (school of rock) started up with the wailing guitars... Man, I was hooked. endorphines and other previously absent chemicals starting flowing to my brain, pumping out long forgot thoughts of "you will win" or "Stomp those fuckers with strollers! more running room for the runners!". I felt like a champion boxer just before the first ding of the bell. Then the horn went off and the mass of runners surged forward in a slow crawl past the starting line, previously Felecia and I decided that we were just going to walk and do a bit of running, all that changed the minute I got passed the starting line. We all ran along with each other until we got out of the park and then I couldn't stop running, I was feeling great and didn't want to slow down, I looked back but I couldn't see the sister or Felecia, so I just turned and kept running. about a mile into the run I realized that this wasn't so bad and that my previous spurning of running was entirely unfounded. I was loving it, my lungs were burning but my legs were keeping up. As I rounded Pioneer park and making the last stretch onto Rio Grande road, I heard clapping and whooping coming from behind me, I turned around to look and I was greeted with a view of a very tall, very lean muscular Kenyan man running first place in the half marathon. Holy shit I thought, that man is totally kicking some ass! jebus he is all leg! shit, that's my new hero. I wanted to shake his hand at the finish line, but by the time I got there he was no where to be seen. oh well.

Anyways, I finished the race, but I am still hungry for more. I think I will be finding more 5k's to run and next year I want to hit up the 1/2 marathon. Hopefully my new hero will be back for another go next year.

Andrew Barrrett unofficial time for 5k: 41 minutes.

Felecia kicks balls

I went out and supported Felecia's kick-ball team last night. They played the Turkey Burgers and lost 7 to 1. oh well, at least she got to kick some balls!

Scooter

My Stella is quite a girl all tarted up in chrome.