Blustery Discouragement

Wow, I couldn't believe how windy it was yesterday. I went out to enjoy the sun on my road bike, and just got tossed around like I couldn't believe. It was interesting, I headed North and West. So with the wind from the Southwest, it wasn't coming at me head on, but I'd have one direction that was fast, and the other was knocking me over and impeding any progress. Usually that doesn't happen in one half of the out and back I usually do. Usually one way is hard, the other is easy. Oh well, I got through it, and it still was a nice day. The Bianchi is quite a fast bike. Rides like yesterday weren't its bread and butter, I think weekly club rides is where it would be most at home.

I spent a good amount of time at Panera yesterday trying to better use some of my thesis literature. An older Latina woman stopped next to me as she was leaving. "Excuse me, could I ask what you're working on, you look so intense". I bet I looked like a deer in the headlights. I thought "what AM I working on????". I explained that it's for my Industrial Engineering Master's thesis. Then I thought "how do I explain that I'm researching Lagrangian mechanics methods of solving the Direct Manipulation of Non Uniform Rational B-Spline surfaces?". I should have had a better answer. I've gone over what my professor calls an "Elevator explanation" -> If you have a free form 3D shape, and a manufacturing engineer needs to change it in a software program, my research would help make this dimensional change without disturbing the artist's ideas. But the "how" is not really important for people like this nice lady. Oh well, now I know. It's pretty important for me that others that I talk to realize my interest in proliferating engineering/design as something interesting instead of "too complicated to talk about". Without this happening, I'll have to live in some other country, due to the lack of respect for engineers in the US.

I'm really thinking I need to setup a cool trip after May 08. Talking with some guys at work, I got myself thinking about making the most of a "job hunting"/"cool location hunting" trip. I could really enjoy camping, etc... in CO during the hot summer months in the Rockies. Or some coastal breeze/Sierra Nevada rides in CA. Or some appalacian rides in NC. The list goes on and on. With any hope I'd find a great place to live and ride, with folks that do the same thing. And, find a decent job. There's tons of engineering software companies in CA, massachusetts, utah, and NC. So I should collect some funds/bikes/camping gear this summer in hopes of doing just that.