(1) So I was driving home tonight, a mile from home, just doodling
along and then vrooommm this crazy ass on a motorcycle goes by me at
literally 150+mph in a 35mph zone on  through a red light with a
left green arrow nearly missing the front bumper of a left turning
truck.  so i'm like, uh oh this guys craaaazy suicidal, better
watch out...  he disappears waaay ahead of me... so then the road
splits a mile further with wall to go under a wide bridge/tunnel type
thing that curves in the middle so you can't see ahead. 

soo i'm doodling down the road about 60mph down this blind turn... and
right at the worst point this guy reappears GOING THE WRONG WAY 100MPH
INTO TRAFFIC... as if to play chicken or something... thanks to divide
there's no way he can get back anyway... me going 60, he going 100...
160mph there is essentially no time to react but i manage to yank the
wheel just a smidgeon and he passes instantaneously inches from driver
side mirror with a huge whoosh... holy jesus, that was some crazy
shit.  someone must have just watched matrix reloaded on meth or
something... cuz seriously that was some fucked up shit.

(2) I'm nearly done with "the elegant universe" though i checked it out
last month i only started reading it last week... i've managed to fit
in a lot of reading on lunch breaks/at the gym after work... and i've
plowed through it.  definitely a good book, no wonder they made a
12 part pbs special on it.  anyway, it's reinstated my closet
theoretical physics freak because wow that's some crazy stuff.  i
think what started it though was watching 'what the *bleep* do we
know?' last week which is rather vague and wishy washy borderline
science but just enough taste of the new paradigm of science that it
rekindled my interest. drove me to go find out the REAL stuff.   i
sorta had this streak in high school.. reading feynman's "six easy
pieces," einsteins stuff, the trite hawkings book etc... but so i think
i've finally reached a sort of critical mass where i'm gonna go gung ho
into it and try to get into the actual math of all these crazy
theories.  for a guy who hates math, that's a bold proposition...
but i see no other way to advance myself... i've heard all the stories,
the theories etc... now it's time to get down to the knitty gritty.

books on tape are also great. i've squeezed a lot into my morning
commute.  just finished anton chekov's "the cherry orchard." 
monday i also finally finished my 6 CD set of humorous short stories
from the new yorker.  i want to get a short story published in the
new yorker.  that's like the highest place for short stories and
aspiring authors there is.  you know you've made it, or so they
say, if you get in the new yorker.

(3) Inaugural ball, whirlwind tour of baltimore was good times. 
good to see familiar faces.  thanks to everyone for coming
out.  made me really miss baltimore.

(4) steaming along at work, every day feel more and more like a "real
engineer," god fresh outta college kids are so worthless.  though
personally i still barely know anything, i started training a new
engineer myself last week... showing him around etc... telling him what
to do.  sorta an interesting realization... talk about the blind
leading the blind, but actually it's made me realize i know more than i
give myself credit for because i'm doing an alright job. he's getting
up to speed much faster than i did since he has someone to show him
around (that being ME, which is i think more than i technically
got).  i'm learning to do a good impression of a good old fashion
american mechanical/manufacuring engineer... u know the people who
actually MAKE stuff as compared to those who just publish abstract
theories (i.e. college)

(5) a little creepy seeing the "hopkins crime problem" i.e. recent
student muder in the county paper way out here.  i think it was
probably like on AP, but it was an article on how hopkins has serious
crime problems, citing 2 murders in the past year etc... as much as i
laughed it off... its funny to realize how many people even that i knew
who got mugged or had car windows smashed in (erik) etc... so yeah,
even though hopkins is on the nicest side of town... it's still pretty
freakin ghetto.  most people everywhere don't experience crime
anywhere near as much as baltimore (and hopkins) people (except in the
movies.)

(6) co-workers and i booked a cabin in big bear for 10 or so for the
weekend of the 25th of this month to go snowboarding.  should be
interesting.  co-workers, you know yer old when your co-workers
have become your most immediate social circle.  makes sense though
you spend as much time with them as anyone.  i feel bad for the
married guys with kids... because seriously it weirds me out that i'm
spending 9,10 hrs a day with them while like their wife and kids see
them for only like 4 hrs a day before they go to bed.  there
certainly is something odd about the whole co-worker
relationship.  i've got waay too many other things i'd rather do
than work a 9 to 5.  jeesus i need to hurry up start my own
company get rich and retire already