Since I'm a fan of irony, I'm sharing something that I ran across on the net. I am currently doing some research for a potential trip to Tibet. I was on the Weather Underground website, trying to figure out the climate in Tibet in November/December. I found this ad to be very amusing - I can meet 20-something blondes in Tingri, Tibet!

I haven't posted in a while; I haven't felt much like writing for whatever reason. Two weeks ago Pete, James, and I got together for a kayaking excursion near home. We dropped our kayaks into the Fox River outside of Mukwonago, and paddled to my parent's backyard in Waterford. It took us about 6.5 hours in total, and we covered 19 miles. In hindsight, it was a bad idea trying to paddle that far for our first time out, but we had fun nevertheless.

Here was our route:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=867993

Here are some photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmirwin/tags/kayaking/

I got back from Whistler, British Columbia last night. I spent a few days snowboarding at Whistler resort http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com. I had a great weekend - it was the first time that I was truly snowboarding on a mountain, as opposed to the hills around Wisconsin & Michigan.

The trip didn't start off too well - Continental was telling me that I would have to wait a day because my flight was delayed, I would miss my connection, & there wasn't an alternative route to Vancouver. After lots of frustration, one of the Continental employees at the ticket counter found Northwest flights from Milwaukee -> Minneapolis -> San Francisco -> Vancouver. Needless to say, I arrived in Vancouver a few hours later than I had planned. After that fiasco, the bus ride to Whistler was enjoyable (the views along the highway are gorgeous).

I spent a total of three days snowboarding - the first & the last day were the best, as it was raining on the 2nd day. Once you were above 3,000 ft, the rain turned into wet snow. My snowboard wasn't moving quickly in the wet snow, which acted as a catalyst to several spills. After a few cartwheels, I was generally back on my feet. The difference was that I was more wet, and picked up some bruises along the way.

On the third day, I decided to hike to top of one of the bowls - the hike took about 30 minutes, but was totally worth it. The view from the top was incredible, and there weren't many people around since it wasn't serviced by a chairlift. Most importantly, I found a path down the mountain where I was able to make the first tracks. Snowboarding in a couple feet of powder is incredible - the feeling can be described as floating on air. When I went skydiving, I felt like I was moving in one direction - down. On the snow, it was a feeling of gliding over a surface without any imperfections.

From the top of the bowl:

What I just rode down:

En route, I also read a few books: Einstein's Dreams & The Tipping Point. I would recommend both of them to any interested parties. Einstein's Dreams is a serious of vignettes that have to do with the passage of time. The short stories are unrelated to one another, but I could relate to almost all of the stories through my own experiences. I've never thought about time being so three dimensional, and this book made me think about all of the different facets of time. Tipping Point argues that small, relatively minor changes lead to large effects, often in the context of epidemics (medical, as well as social & economic). It was an interesting take on explaining some phenomena (such as teen smoking, reduction of crime in NYC during the mid-nineties, etc).

I'm back to civilization! I was in Ladysmith, WI for the week due to work - I couldn't be happier to be home. Ladysmith has about 3000 residents, and little else. The vegetarian diet consisted of the following (in order of lunches/dinners):

1. carrots, broccoli, and tortilla chips the first day
2. Subway
3. the 'best Cesar's salad in town' (I think it was the only one in town)
4. subway
5. veggie pizza
6. veggie pizza
7. salad

I didn't have any mobile service either. As a co-worker put it 'our third world countries have wireless, but we don't have it in northern Wisconsin!? Is there something wrong with this picture?'.

On the positive side, it was an enjoyable car ride home today. The people were wonderful (as they always are in small towns), and I saw the northern lights! I wish I would have taken a photo, but I wasn't thinking about it at the time. (After a few hours of sleep & 14 hours at work, my brain wasn't functioning optimally.)

When I got home I realized my last food review had been published! Check it out if you're interested: http://mkeonline.com/story.asp?id=1401071

OK - I need to start going through my stack of mail...

Environmentally unfriendly meat eaters?

I've been seeing more of these types of studies pop up. This one is from the U of Chicago. Anyone that is hardcore about being environmentally friendly should read this. It's been a fact (since I converted to a vegetarian diet) that 13 lbs. of grain will only result in 1 lb. of beef, but this study analyzes the carbon emissions given off by a 'normal' American diet vs. an ovo-lacto (one that consumes dairy projects & eggs) vegetarian diet.

There is a lot of data in here, but the findings are rather remarkable. As with any study, they make a few assumptions, but they seem to take an unbiased view of results.

WARNING: Before reading this article, get your pocket protector & tape for your glasses. It takes a bit of stamina to get through this.

http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~gidon/papers/nutri/nutriEI.pdf

Swimming in the Amazon

I was reading BBC online this morning and ran across this article. I don't think I've swam for 20 minutes at once, let alone a couple of months. His writing isn't all that evocative, but I found the story intriguing nevertheless.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6389845.stm#map

I'm a celebrity!

At some point in time, I must have provided the international education office at UWM with some of my photos from Tokyo. Kristen texted me on Thursday to let me know that I'm in one of their brochures. Between being in www.mkeonline.com (http://www.mkeonline.com/story.asp?id=1400738), having my photo taken at work (in a suit), and this UWM material, I think that I may be experiencing my 15 minutes of fame!

I was hoping that it would be something more remarkable...like 'First Cheesehead to Walk on the Moon' or 'Wisconsin Man Sails Around the World' or even a National Geographic article written by me. Alas....I'll have to settle for these moments of glory.

Goodbye to Christmas

I took my Christmas tree down yesterday, as it was starting to lose the majority of its needles. I remember Syd, Jason, Pam, and Hans telling me that a teaspon of honey & a pre-1982 penny would keep my tree alive until late spring. Well, that might have worked if I kept the tree watered. After I moved the tree out to my front lawn, I picked up about two bags worth of pine needles.

Dog Killers

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17074960/

There's a short article about some teenage boys putting a live puppy into an oven to kill it. Both of them will be sentenced to 10 years in jail.

While this post may not make everyone happy, several things occured to me. When I was in Vietnam (especially in the North), dog is served like any other animal. On the bus ride to Halong Bay, I saw sign after sign advertising dog for dinner. What makes Fido so special in the US that someone cannot kill him? Is it because we think of some animals as extensions of our family & ourselves? I can't think of any other reason why people can brutally kill thousands of cows, pigs, chicken, and calves each day to feed the American consumer, but be deeply troubled by the death of a pet. In any type of factory farm, these animals are subjected to similar horrific treatment that the dog experienced. Yet no one seems to care...maybe it's because that last burger didn't feel, taste, or look like a cow. Maybe it's because it came in a colorful wrapper or sterilized plastic wrap. Our society & culture contributes to the disassociation of eating & death. People no longer need to hunt/gather their own food - it comes in packages from all over the world.

I'm not disagreeing that those two boys did something wrong. Nothing should be tortured, be it animals or humans. However, punishment isn't being doled out to people who commit these vile acts everyday.

Ok - my rant is over. ; )

EDIT: This is strange...while I was going to go check some stock prices, I saw an article linked from CNN that caught my attention. It goes well with the theme of eating animals that people love - this one is about horses & I couldn't agree more:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1587279,00.html

Cycling


One month has passed since I decided to set my cycling goal - a goal that was not meant to live in infamy (doesn't that sound like a movie intro?). My goal for 2007 is to ride 2,500 miles on my bicycle, as calculated by my CatEye cyclometer.


Let's first talk about the catalyst: my reason had nothing to do with a new year's resolution - resolutions are for losers. People that make them never keep them - Webster ought to change the definition of resolution to 'a state of living in disbelief'. (Congrats to anyone who has kept a new year's resolution for more than 3 months.) I digress...I wanted to challenge myself physically this year. In the past few years, I've become quite fond of cycling so I thought that I'd combine something that I enjoy along with a physical challenge. I have no reason to do this other than to see how my body handles the workout. I'm amazed by the severe environments that a human body can weather, and while this isn't all at once I probably need to get in shape to climb Kilimanjaro (assuming that I decide to go to Africa this year).


The first month of riding has been fairly boring. Since it is winter, I'm stuck pedaling inside on my (fluid resistance) trainer. I've watched Dave Matthews concerts several times - the Central Park concert of 2004 is my favorite. After Dave, I moved onto A Concert for George, a benefit for the late George Harrison. I still watch that concert once a week while I ride. I've now moved onto reading while pedaling. While this isn't ideal (it's hard to hold larger books while holding myself up on the handlebars), it definitely is a productive use of time. I'm thinking about using a book stand - that would probably eliminate the anti-finesse portion of reading while riding. And then there are those times when I just stare at the Winamp visualization playing on my computer and sing along. This doesn't work well all the time, as I usually have to breathe to keep up my pedaling cadence.


Anyways, let's get back to why I'm writing. Here's an update - I'm at 240.1 out of 2500 miles. For those of you who like percentages - I'm 9.604% towards my goal. The proof is below...