Thursday 2 February 2012

Trudging along with glimpses of light

Full on lic thesis writing going on, and just last week, I found an article with the exact theory we have been looking for for more than two years! Need to decipher that with the help of Sakurai and put in as much as I can figure out in my writing. Don't much like the idea of presenting a zero-result experiment based on no theory at all...

Down here at work, just after the Christmas break, I heard about people taking vacations in Chamonix which is a pretty place in the Alps for people who go skiing and those who tag along for booze and food. I've never been a fan of downhill skiing/snowboarding (take a lift up, ride the snow, take another lift up, ride the same snow... unless you're crazy, go off-pist and die), but I've always wanted to see snow covered summits in young mountain ranges close-up at some point in my life. And then I found out that there's been some work done on off-road bike trails of varying difficulty around Chamonix, and in a minute, a childhood desire to bomb forests and dusty rocky mountains exploded inside my head. I loved biking on off-road trails as a kid, but none of my friends ever did and I've always been a cheapskate (mtb is an expensive hobby), so I totally forgot about this outdoor activity. I inhaled everything I could find about mountain biking for a week and was going slightly insane about it all. Worse gear-mania among mtbs than even computers and headphones and there are no cheap ways to go about it. After work, I've been stopping at a big parking lot on my way home to practice the track stand on my hybrid so I'd feel good about knowing something for my first nice mtb.

Found a 37% discount on a Lapierre Spicy 516 2011 here in France and it would be simply criminal not to grab that opportunity. I'd have to pay more than 50% more for that bike in Sweden (or pretty much anywhere else in Europe in fact), so I went for it. Very pretty bike with good components and a masterful frame supposedly. Been going to a few local bike shops to buy shoes, pedals and a shock pump and I'm in principle ready to go for it. I touch it every day, trying the SPD mechanism which is totally new to me, waiting for the day I'll take it out for a spin... There is a forest path along the ridge of the Jura mountains, which includes a stinkin' 1km climb straight up from where I live!

My slight headphone interest has helped a few people out who have been looking for good headphones, I hope they'll be happy with their (potential) purchases.

Found out about Elimination just a few days ago, a TI83/4 game based on Gemini. Glad somebody decided to bite the bullet and bring a game worth something to that useless gaming platform.

I wanna write more code, but there's so little time in the world :/ Realtime radiosity... want...