Word on the street is ASME has started shipping the book I helped my Dad write, Pipe Stress Engineering. Still waiting on my copy, so I guess they're sending out the pre-ordered copies first. It's available from Amazon or directly from ASME. Initial feedback on the engineering forums has been very positive.Saturday, June 27, 2009
Shipping now
Word on the street is ASME has started shipping the book I helped my Dad write, Pipe Stress Engineering. Still waiting on my copy, so I guess they're sending out the pre-ordered copies first. It's available from Amazon or directly from ASME. Initial feedback on the engineering forums has been very positive.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Mas gatos
June came by recently to check up on her cats (and to lure them out from under my bed). Apparently, at least one of the two is still eating well.
Work team building today. Going to the IMAX to see Transformers 2 on the big screen. Yeah, technically, it's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - whatever - most people are calling it the new Megan Fox film anyway.
Work team building today. Going to the IMAX to see Transformers 2 on the big screen. Yeah, technically, it's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - whatever - most people are calling it the new Megan Fox film anyway.
Monday, June 22, 2009
24 hours in Houston
Made a quick trip to Houston with my sister this weekend to celebrate my brother's birthday and Father's Day. Ate at Feng Ling Saturday night and at Arcos for Sunday lunch. If you like dungeness crab, the crab fried rice at Arcos is not to be missed. At $38 a pop, it's probably the most expensive fried rice you'll ever order, but it's very tasty.
Here are some other random sitings from H-town.
Stopped off at a 99cent store on the way into town. Apparently, Mr. Landis' book is not selling well. Team Ouch, indeed:
My back-up plan. It's all about the herb science. And foot massages:
Spent the better part of Sunday trimming a ton of limbs from my brother's oak tree, cutting back his shrubs, and patching a hole in his roof. It was a combined birthday and Father's Day gift:
The drive back to Austin reminded me of the Simpson's intro sequence:
Here are some other random sitings from H-town.
Stopped off at a 99cent store on the way into town. Apparently, Mr. Landis' book is not selling well. Team Ouch, indeed:
My back-up plan. It's all about the herb science. And foot massages:
Spent the better part of Sunday trimming a ton of limbs from my brother's oak tree, cutting back his shrubs, and patching a hole in his roof. It was a combined birthday and Father's Day gift:
The drive back to Austin reminded me of the Simpson's intro sequence:
Friday, June 19, 2009
Orwell meets Bell
Received the above pic and title from Bandera recently - although, you really should refer to her as Berkeley, since she's lived there for a couple of years now.Speaking of creative, check out the following design school projects:
Cat update: Woke up with the older one purring next to me. She even allowed me to pet her. Is this good or bad?
P.S. Happy Birthday, Bro!
P.P.S. Stainless steel rusts. Any engineer worth his salt (pun intended) could have told you that.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Sotto voce
Decided I needed a new helmet after riding with Pete this morning. I've been using a 10 year old Boreas for the last couple of rides, but the foam has disintegrated, so it's not very useful for sweat management. Luckily, Performance was having one of their "everything in the store is 15% off" sales. I ended up with a Giro Atmos. I've worn a Pnuemo for years now, but the Atmos was on sale for the same price, so time for an upgrade. It's sexy and makes my head look smaller - at least that's what the clerk said.
While I was in the store, I also picked up a new Chris King headset in their new "soft voice" treatment. It was their display model, so they gave me a nice discount. For all you bike geeks out there, this is what 3 generations of CK headsets look like. The non-engraved bearing cup design is from about a dozen years ago. They started engraving their cups for their team riders a few years later, which became their standard. And this year, they've gone to an engraved, then anodized finish. A bit more sub-tle (and probably cheaper, since the mis-engraved ones can be scrapped prior to the anodizing step).
And speaking of soft voices, los dos gatos are finally making an appearance while I'm home. Still a little skittish and use the forest of dining table legs for safety, but it's progress.
While I was in the store, I also picked up a new Chris King headset in their new "soft voice" treatment. It was their display model, so they gave me a nice discount. For all you bike geeks out there, this is what 3 generations of CK headsets look like. The non-engraved bearing cup design is from about a dozen years ago. They started engraving their cups for their team riders a few years later, which became their standard. And this year, they've gone to an engraved, then anodized finish. A bit more sub-tle (and probably cheaper, since the mis-engraved ones can be scrapped prior to the anodizing step).
And speaking of soft voices, los dos gatos are finally making an appearance while I'm home. Still a little skittish and use the forest of dining table legs for safety, but it's progress.
Friday, June 12, 2009
WTF
Amazing the stuff you can find on the interwebs. These are our most recent SEC filings:
Check out page 31 of this one. $400K for a golf membership? Dios Mio!
And page 13 of this one shows that our board has been negotiating the sale of our company for the past 2 years. All the while telling the troops that the company was not for sale. Nice.
Riding Spicewood Springs in the morning with Pete. If you're here for the ROT rally, please try not to hit me. ROT - the biggest meeting of posers in Austin since SXSW.
PS - I'm not bitter, it's the martinis talking.
PPS - I purchased a Bruce Gordon Rock 'n Road Tour today. I always wanted a full-on touring bike. Bruce was kinda grumpy when we first talked - a result he said from talking to a number of other buyers that wanted to nit-pick and talk him down on price. He got nicer once he realized that I knew what I wanted, and I wasn't out to chiz him on a parts group or wanting some of his custom racks for free. He's rolling back prices to 1988 levels, which was enough for me. I guess everyone is hurting in these economic times. Btw, mine will be in John Deere green, not red. Should take BG a month or so to build it.
Check out page 31 of this one. $400K for a golf membership? Dios Mio!
And page 13 of this one shows that our board has been negotiating the sale of our company for the past 2 years. All the while telling the troops that the company was not for sale. Nice.
Riding Spicewood Springs in the morning with Pete. If you're here for the ROT rally, please try not to hit me. ROT - the biggest meeting of posers in Austin since SXSW.
PS - I'm not bitter, it's the martinis talking.
PPS - I purchased a Bruce Gordon Rock 'n Road Tour today. I always wanted a full-on touring bike. Bruce was kinda grumpy when we first talked - a result he said from talking to a number of other buyers that wanted to nit-pick and talk him down on price. He got nicer once he realized that I knew what I wanted, and I wasn't out to chiz him on a parts group or wanting some of his custom racks for free. He's rolling back prices to 1988 levels, which was enough for me. I guess everyone is hurting in these economic times. Btw, mine will be in John Deere green, not red. Should take BG a month or so to build it.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Milestone
Made a delivery run to Killeen early this morning. When I got back, the weather was so inviting that I decided to go for a ride. Yes, my first bike ride (cue trumpets). I did the Spicewood Springs / 360 loop. 25 miles total. A little solo victory lap to celebrate this upcoming Monday's 3 month anniversary of my accident. The ride felt pretty good. I've been making really good progress in PT this week. The rotational range of my neck has improved 100% (which is a little misleading, since you don't know my original range). I still have a hard time tilting my head to the left and right. And since looking back for approaching cars is a compound angle move, I still have a little problem with that maneuver. All in all, it's a victory, and I'll take it. Hooray!
Btw, I was in Killeen to deliver a Titus Racer-X that I sold. Didn't need it anymore, since I purchased a titanium one in the same size recently (and for less money). If you look closely, you'll notice I snagged the original Fox fork and rear shock off of this bike.
This week also saw me shipping out my stainless steel IF and my Colavita Kelly.
Up next is a Merlin Solis and a DeSalvo Custom.
Btw, I was in Killeen to deliver a Titus Racer-X that I sold. Didn't need it anymore, since I purchased a titanium one in the same size recently (and for less money). If you look closely, you'll notice I snagged the original Fox fork and rear shock off of this bike.
This week also saw me shipping out my stainless steel IF and my Colavita Kelly.
Up next is a Merlin Solis and a DeSalvo Custom.
Friday, June 5, 2009
BOGO
Sad for Yanni. Hope for humanity.
P.S. My 7900 group arrived today. Very sexy. Now, I'm just waiting for the frame to show up.
P.S. My 7900 group arrived today. Very sexy. Now, I'm just waiting for the frame to show up.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Money Shot
From the upcoming diptych retrospective at the Blanton, "The Secret Lives of Rodents" (subtitle: "Dances of the Little Frog")
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Another year
5 birthdays in 4 days. Tracy today, Lina and Linda yesterday, Ron the day before, and Joe the day before that. Sheesh! Dinner on me at the Star of India Friday night for any of you all that can make it (so don't say I never gave you anything). Salud!Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Hell freezes over
People say I'm a Campy snob. That's just not true. I've owed a number of Shimano equipped road bikes - just none at the moment. But that's all about to change soon.
A couple of months ago, Mike DeSalvo sent out an email to see if there was any interest for a spare Shimano Dura Ace 7900 gruppo he had. I was intrigued. I have to say, I've never been really fond of the 7800 crankset - it looks like a big metal pie plate to me - I don't care how stiff it is. Despite the flashy anodized and brushed finish of the new series, I think the new crankset looks pretty decent. Anyway, I pulled the trigger, and I got an email from Mike today saying the parts should be here soon. Why such a long wait? - well, Mike allowed me to spec some of the parts, so I chose the 172.5 compact, the 11-28 cassette, and the braze-on front derailleur. Apparently, the crank and cassette took a while to get in. I'm curious how the 50/34 will work with the 11-28 (Shimano's widest range road cassette). Should be interesting.
Along with the Dura Ace parts, I'm also getting a set of Shimano RS-80 wheels. These have a carbon section bonded to the aluminum rim. The difference between these wheels, and say Zipps, is that the carbon is actually structural in the Shimano wheels. Check out the review.
And in more bike news, my 2009 Speedvagen is in paint and should be here soon also. Vanilla built a few (4) extra road frames for this year's run, so I was lucky to get the last spare frame they had. Sadly, pale blue ('minty fresh') was not offered this year, so I went with 'celery soup'. It'll look similar to the frame in this picture.
In any case, I guess it'd be logical to mate the new frame to the new parts. We'll see if I get Campy withdrawal. If so, I'm sure I can find someone who needs to upgrade their drivetrain (Glenn - hint, hint).
A couple of months ago, Mike DeSalvo sent out an email to see if there was any interest for a spare Shimano Dura Ace 7900 gruppo he had. I was intrigued. I have to say, I've never been really fond of the 7800 crankset - it looks like a big metal pie plate to me - I don't care how stiff it is. Despite the flashy anodized and brushed finish of the new series, I think the new crankset looks pretty decent. Anyway, I pulled the trigger, and I got an email from Mike today saying the parts should be here soon. Why such a long wait? - well, Mike allowed me to spec some of the parts, so I chose the 172.5 compact, the 11-28 cassette, and the braze-on front derailleur. Apparently, the crank and cassette took a while to get in. I'm curious how the 50/34 will work with the 11-28 (Shimano's widest range road cassette). Should be interesting.
Along with the Dura Ace parts, I'm also getting a set of Shimano RS-80 wheels. These have a carbon section bonded to the aluminum rim. The difference between these wheels, and say Zipps, is that the carbon is actually structural in the Shimano wheels. Check out the review.
And in more bike news, my 2009 Speedvagen is in paint and should be here soon also. Vanilla built a few (4) extra road frames for this year's run, so I was lucky to get the last spare frame they had. Sadly, pale blue ('minty fresh') was not offered this year, so I went with 'celery soup'. It'll look similar to the frame in this picture.
In any case, I guess it'd be logical to mate the new frame to the new parts. We'll see if I get Campy withdrawal. If so, I'm sure I can find someone who needs to upgrade their drivetrain (Glenn - hint, hint).
Monday, June 1, 2009
Muy interesante
The office has been buzzing this morning regarding news that there is a rival bid to acquire Borland. It's from a financial buyer, so I'm not sure how I feel about that. They probably think Borland is worth more sold off in pieces than the $1 per share Micro Focus is offering. Suddenly, I feel like I work for the little airline company that Charlie Sheen's dad worked for in Wall Street. Except, this time I don't think Charlie Sheen is going to have a change of heart and save us from the big, bad M&A firm. In any case, our stock is trading around $1.15 this morning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)