Tuesday, June 3, 2008

spanish are used to last minute

i was supposed to do the department seminar at noon today, but the guy in charge of organizing it didn't announce it until 7:00 pm last night. i wasted 2 full days of time prepping a new talk i had never done before and the guy couldn't manage to do his 5 second job. i suggested perhaps we should postpone, and then he told me that spanish people are used to last minute things because everything is last minute. what a load of shit. so anyways i cancelled it. i do not need to stand in a room by myself and tell myself about my research interests . im often unsure how to act in these situations. i think being visibly angry invokes a defense response, and it causes people to fail to see when they have fucked up. not being angry invokes remorse in other people, except for the 5-10% who just don't give a shit. i bottled up all of my anger and played nice guy...i dont know if it was the right strategy, but i think so. next time im just going to tell him hes a dick.

In other news, because of a black and white paisley scarf, Rachel Ray (the cooking show host) and Dunkin Donuts (who oddly enough sell donuts) are Jihadists. Theres alot of great things about the USA, but sometimes we are the biggest bunch of ignorant, bigoted assholes in the universe. i can't believe this is my country sometimes.

In still other news, when is bitchface clinton going to understand that she lost. i think she must be a jihadist and we should boycott donuts and scarves.

wow, i havent posted anything in two weeks and all i can think of to say is totally angry and negative. heres something positive: i rode a century on sunday, i think (the mileage is approximate). i was all geared up to do a 2 day ride from madrid to rascafria via puerto de morcuera, then back the next day via puerto de canencia. theres a handy dandy hostel in rascafria, so i could do this ride without loading my bike with camping gear. the weather reports are simultaneously liberal and conservative and supportive of the palestinian jihad. they will forecast 90+ precip probabilities (when, for example ,weather channel says 60%), but will not hazard a guess as to how much rain might fall or when in the day it might fall. so i killed my ride plan for saturday and what do you know...the entire morning of saturday was beautiful. plenty of time for me to have ridden to rascafria. so sunday rolled around and i was so itchy for a ride i just went out and rode 165 km. i did my usual start/finish in casa de campo and used the awesome bike only route to colmenar viejo. then i took a new route to guadalix de sierra, bustarviejo, miraflores, soto del real, and back down to casa de campo in south madrid. It was raining on and off all day but it felt really good because it was a day without ever being too warm and NO SUNSCREEN! I think I am half vampire because when the sun is out, my energy just drops exponentially. the perfect days are like sunday, when it is on the verge of raining but not really raining. yes there were times when it rained, and my bike did get covered in filth after just having cleaned everything the day before, but it was a perfect day. i maintained a pretty good energy level all day except for my near-bonk experience as i was approaching bustarviejo. it was a surprise climb (turns out my map kind of sucks if you are not driving a car), and i was going to eat lunch number 3 in the next town....mistake! always eat before you are hungry, and before the jihad. After I had eaten all of my food, homemade falafel (jihad!!!), i stopped in a gas station and got a can of pringles, an ice cream bar, and some chocolate filled cookies and a jihadist scarf. but i made it home in the evening and had some gas left in the tank. i wonder if i could ride a double century without any special training. i dont mean ride it well or fast, i mean just actually complete it in one day if i allowed myself dawn to dusk, plenty of food, and managed to pace myself (hard for me). this wondering has made me want to do the rascafria ride (~190 km with 2 big climbs) in one day instead of two. i'll let you know how it goes. so, i'll see you at the jihad, don't forget your paisley scarf and bear claw.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Damn, thanks for the gut buster man. It was just what I needed after a totally shitty morning. One that nearly ended up with me on the windshield of a fucking mini van. So, what language would you have to have give your talk in?

feral boy, ethpana said...

shit dude, glad you didnt get splattered. what happened?

luckily ofrm me the talk was going to be in english. ive been feeling better about spanish lately though, i might be close to some kind of breakthrough. maybe by fall i can do the talk in shitty spanish instead of shitty english. stay off the windshields, keep the rubber on the road!-M

planteo said...

derka derka, jihad, jihad!
my Coconino is getting built this week by a jihadist who hates cars and loves bikes. Another bike riding jihadist. Heythat would be a cool domain name bikeridingjihadist
ted

feral boy, ethpana said...

yes that would be a cool name, of course you know we are all now on a short list of homeland security threats because we have used the word jihad too many times. oh well see you in gitmo.

how's dirkadirkastan...or are you in beautiful flag for the summer.

is garro building you a mountain bike? maybe we should do the ill fated trip to grand canyon again...this time we could make a tv movie about it. brad pitt will play me, and The Rock can play you. And Willie Nelson as the kindly rancher who gave us a lift. And Nel Carter as his wife with all the food bank gatorade. one of these days...

see you in hell c-bag