Graduation!

I graduated! More details to come......

Post-Graduation Job/Plans

This post is definitely long overdue. The date of my graduation is drawing near...only 12.5 days away, and I am scurrying to finish all my homework/projects/labs/studying, and everything else that I have to do. Whereas my grade point will not be determined for another 2 weeks, one thing that has already been determined is my immediate post-graduation plans, including my new job for the near and immediate future.

Last week, I accepted a full-time position with Southern Natural Gas, a subsidiary of El Paso Corporation, which provides natural gas and related energy products. If you are wandering what a subsidiary is, I'll give you a little analogy (basically, EP is the parent company, just like Southern Co).

Southern Natural Gas is to El Paso Corporation as
Alabama Power is to Southern Company

El Paso Corporation owns America's largest interstate natural gas pipeline system- approximately 43,000 miles- transporting about a quarter of the natural gas consumed in the country each day. Besides pipelines, they are also in the business of exploration and production.

Anyways...the job that I have been hired on for is that of a Pipeline Analyst. Basically, I will be using a lot of simulation techniques as well as other various technical engineering skills to look at what would happen if certain events take place on our pipelines. There is a lot more to it than this, but if you want to know more you can just ask me.

The Southern Natural Gas building is located directly beside Brookwood Mall in Birmingham, AL, so that is where I will be. My start date is January 14th, 2008, so I will have a solid month to do whatever I want before I start work. My family already has a snow skiing trip planned for the Christmas break, and we are leaving the day after I graduate. Besides that, I will probably ride my bike and row alot, as well as find a place to live and take care of other miscellaneous tasks. That is about it...if anyone is going to be in Birmingham starting in 2008, let me know!

The Stand

You stood before creation
Eternity within Your hand
You spoke the earth into motion
My soul now to stand

You stood before my failure
Carried the Cross for my shame
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll walk upon salvation
Your Spirit alive in me
This life to declare Your promise
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all

So I’ll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

Show me Your heart
Show me Your way
Show me Your glory

"The Stand"
Hillsong United

The Perfect Bowl of Oatmeal

They always tell you to use to much water on the package, so I just kind of eyeball it. I like my oatmeal 80-20 solid-liquid, and this morning, I made the PERFECT bowl! For that reason, today is going to be a good day.

I haven't blogged in awhile, but I think I'm going to start posting during Thermodynamics on MWF, because I never pay attention in class, and it seems to be working out fine so far.

Busy-ness

I have not posted in awhile, as I have been fairly busy lately. I won't even try to cover everything that I missed, so if you are really interested, you can just ask me. Last night, I cycled in a 10 mile Time Trial along with several other Alabama Triathletes with the Druid City Bicycle Club. My legs were still pretty fatigued from Tuesday's interval track workout and 27 mile bike ride. I managed to average between 21 and 22 mph for the time trial, which I was happy with. I'm pretty sure i could do 23+ mph on rested legs. I plan on swimming later today and going on a bike ride/run tomorrow morning.
Last night at the Well, Ben had a very interesting topic to speak about. He talked about the fact that we always feel like we have to perform for someone...whether it be school, sports, or even for God himself. However, it is not like that at all. Performance does not matter. We are not judged by our worldly accomplishments. When you get to the gates of heaven, you are not asked "How many A's did you make in college?" or "How many basketball games did you win?" What really matters is your relationship with God and what is on the inside.
I am going home this weekend to celebrate my Dad's 50th birthday, so that should be fun. I plan on eating very well.

Never Run Long Distances in Nike Free's

Just like the title says...don't do it. I ran 8.5 miles in my Free's last night, and it was a mistake. By the end of the run, my knees were killing me. On the bright side, however, I slept pretty good last night.

Friday

This has been a busy week...
-homework turned in for each of my 4 classes, as well as a lab report
-Sunday church, Tuesday night bible study, Thursday night The Well
-Crimson Tide Master's Swim Club on Monday and Wednesday night
-Monday night Alabama Triathletes meeting
-2 trials completed in the research that I am doing for Catalina's Exercise Science program
-work at the Productivity Center for 2 hours on Monday-Friday
-ran around 9 miles total
-biked around 10 miles
Tomorrow, The U of A plays Arkansas at Bryant Denny, it shouuld be a pretty good game. I think that if we can stop the run, we will win. Their passing game is pretty weak, so if we can just stop McFadden and put some points on the board, we will be fine. We will see what happens.
I have tests next week in Thermodynamics and Circuits, so I need to get some studying done this weekend. I also have a lab due on Monday and a homework due on Tuesday, so Sunday will likely be a busy day. The Career Fair is next Tuesday, so I plan on doing some major networking and getting some interviews set up. A guy from Southern Company called me 2 days ago wanting to talk about opportunities, so I will be chatting with him on Monday. Next week will prove to be just as busy as this week, I'm sure.

"TPOP"

I hope that you are wandering what "TPOP" means, because I am still laughing at it! I am up at CAPTURE, a cool little coffee shop place that I somehow have never heard of in my previous 4 years at THE U of A, doing some studying and listening to some music. When I got here, I had to take a quick trip to the restroom, and as I was standing there, I happened to notice a little sign above the toilet paper that said "TPOP." Below these four mysterious letters stood the description of this out-of-control acronym: "Toilet Paper Only Please." HAHA!!! I am still laughing!
I have not blogged in a week, so I am going to try to catch up a little bit. Most of last week was spent either working out or doing circuits or thermodynamics homework.
The coach of the master's swim club, Catalina Casaru, is doing research on fireman's gear, and she asked me to be one of her subjects. I quickly agreed, since a pre-cursor to the study was to get a VO2 max test, something that I have always wanted to do. Vo2 max is a person's maximum capacity to transport and utilize oxygen during incremental exercise. Basically, it is a very good way to see the size of a person's "engine," or how much aerobic potential they have. However, a high VO2 max does not necessarily translate into being a fast runner, rower, or cyclist. What is more important is one's ability to stay at this level of intensity for a long period of time. Anyways, the test consisted of running on a treadmill while hooked up to oxygen max with a tube hooked to a machine. The treadmill started off slow, and Catalina gradually increased the speed and incline until I could not longer go anymore. The results of the test were:
VO2 max: 67.41 ml/kg/min
Max HR: 201 bpm
I had a pretty good swim practice on Wednesday night...Catalina had as do a bunch of speed work...something to the extent of 12 x 25 m, 6 x 50 m, 3 x 100 m, 2 x 150 m, all on time. We did some other drills and stuff, and the practice ended up being close to 3K. I attended the spin class at the rec that morning, and it was once again a very good workout. We did a lot of sprint work with a good bit of it being out of the saddle. You can tell a lot about the shape that you are in by your heart rate behavior, and it was very encouraging to see how my heart was reacting to the workout. For the short bursts of sprints, my max HR only topped 180 (compared to my max HR of 201), and my rate was quickly recovering into the 130's or 140's within less than a minute. The best way to see how fit a person is is to watch how fast their HR drops after doing work. Basically, quick HR drop=in shape.
I didn't do anything on Thursday, but on Friday I started my first trial in the research that I am helping Catalina with. I had to get in a hot box and walk on a treadmill for 40 minutes while my heart rate and VO2 were being recorded. It was pretty hot in there, but the trial was relatively easy.
On Saturday I went on a 10 mile bike ride, followed by a 3 mile run or so. For the bike ride, I headed over to McCorvey Drive to do a 10 hill repeat. For the run, I headed down the Riverwalk towards the boathouse and did 10 stadium laps on the middle school football field. Today (Sunday), I completed my second trial in the fireman's gear research, and it was extremely difficult. I had to wear 40 pounds of gear (pants, jacket, mask, helmet, and O2 tank), and then walk on the treadmill in a hot box for 40 min. I can honestly say that I have never hit my max HR of 201 bpm while WALKING! It was insane! After finishing, I had to sit down with my arm in a cooling device for 40 min to record my drop in body temperature. More than anything, this trial was very mentally demanding.
Besides my workouts for the week, I also completed a good bit of schoolwork. I hate to say it, but I actually kind of like my circuits class. Thermodynamics is pretty boring, as is materials, but I really enjoy my reliability class as well. We did some very interesting application work in reliability this week. Have you ever wondered how companies place warranty lengths on products? Well, not to say that all companies do this (some probably grab a number out of thin air), but if you have enough historical data, you can assign a warranty a __ number of years that will in turn lead to only a __% of products being returned. I do need to brush up on my integral calculus, mainly regarding exponentials, but it is a fairly simple procedure. I just love the power of statistics! (right about now, Stacey is calling me a nerd, haha!) I would estimate that at least 80% of people have no idea what you can do with stats, not that they care, but they might if they knew!
This morning, I went to the inaugural service of Church of the Highlands in Tuscaloosa. It was pretty tight, but I do plan on heading back to Calvary next week. I miss people!
I have made it this far without even mentioning college football once...well, here are my takes:
-Roll Tide! However, J.P. needs to work on throwing the deep ball.
-Go Ducks! However, I do feel sorry for Michigan.
-Go Nittany Lions! (Notre Dame might lose their first 8 games)
-I hate the Big East, but my hate for Auburn far surpasses it, go USF!
Well, I think this blog has been long enough. I am going to try to post more regularly so that I don't start writing books.

Labor Day

It's been 1 week since I last posted...I am really slacking as of late! Last week was the first full week of classes, and a boring one at that. Also, I came down with a cold so it was a pretty miserable week.

Classes:
I turned in my first circuits homework, and it wasn't too bad. The class is somewhat interesting, but it will still be hard due to a lack of motivation because I am positive that I will NEVER solve a circuits problem again in my life. The same goes for my civil engineering materials class (which so far has been my daily nap time) and my thermodynamics class. I am taking one very interesting class: Reliability. It is taught by one of my favorite professors, Dr. Fonseca, and so far it has proved to be very thought provoking.
Workouts:
I joined the Master's Swim Club, and we practiced on Monday and Wednesday night. I will continue this throughout the semester. We swam 2700 meters each of the nights, and it was a really good workout. I am excited about getting back into swimming after a 4+ year sabbatical.
I was able to get in 2 rides this past week: I rode 23.6 miles with the Tri Club last Tuesday and 28 miles with Jason yesterday. I plan on biking a lot more in the near future.
Tomorrow I am getting my VO2 max tested by Catalina, one of the Swim Club coaches. She is a Master's student in Exercise Science, and is completing some research this semester of which a VO2 max is part of. After hearing her explain it to me, I quickly agreed to be a test subject.

I'm pretty excited to not be sick anymore.

My Arms Hurt!

I haven't posted since Saturday, so I'll start with Sunday. It was a relaxing day...I went to Calvary in the morning, ran some errands, delivered a CD, and went with Stacey to get groceries in the early afternoon, and then I headed up to the pool to meet Person, Nick, and Brenna. After lounging around the lazy river for awhile, Person and I headed to Lakeside to eat dinner. Later on in the night, I went on a 10 K run, finishing in 52:33.
Today marked the first crew practice of the semester, and I showed up to try to encourage the guys. I ended up doing a 30 minute erg, moving 7160 meters in that time period. The rest of the day went as follows:
1. thermodynamics
2. circuits
3. work at APC
4. civil materials lab
5. met Matt and Jimmy to get my security deposit back
6. back home
I decided to go with Jason to the Alabama Master's Swim Club practice, which I am going to join for the semester. I haven't swam since December, and before that it was like 3.5 years. The workout was pretty tiring....
1. 300 m free warm up
2. 200 m free drills
3. 100 m free kick
4. 5 x (4 x 100 m) on 1:40, 1:35, 1:30, 1:25, 1:40 pull only
5. 100 m choice cool down
My arms feel like they are about to fall off. However, it feels good to get back into swimming. I'm going to officially start doing schoolwork tomorrow. Its been a nice 2.5 weeks just floating around and doing nothing but working out!

Interesting Semester So Far

The semester has been interesting so far, with lots of events occurring that I did not foresee. A few weeks ago, I got a call from a guy at The Alabama Productivity Center asking me to work for them this semester on a simulation project. APC is a research institution located in Bidgood Hall that gets subcontracted work from companies around Alabama and hires on students along with faculty to complete them. At first, I told them that I wanted to work, but after consulting with myself and a colleague, I decided that I just wanted to chill this semester. However, in the back of my mind, I really had no idea what I wanted to do. After praying about it, I completely turned it over to God, and didn't worry about it at all. Out of the blue, on the first day of classes, I decided to pay APC a visit and figure out what they had to offer. As a side note to this story, I am paying for every single bit of my expenses this semester: tuition, living, eating, misc-- expenses of close to $7000. He explained the project to me, and it actually sounded really good, and something that I would love to do. Then he started telling me about the financial rewards, and I found out that they would be paying 1/2 of my tuition as WELL as $10 and hour! After I heard this (as well as the project specifics), I immediately felt that this was what I needed to do. I accepted the job, and did not second-guess anything. I truly feel like God had a part in it. Word.
On Thursday, I rode 23.5 miles with Jason and about 6 other members of the Triathlon Club. It was pretty fun-- we did the Sanders Ferry out-and-back route.
My classes are alright so far. I can tell that I am really going to like my Reliability class, one that deals a lot with statistics and also is taught by my favorite instructor. Thermodynamics is for sure going to be extremely boring, as well as Circuits and Materials. Oh well. That's what I get for waiting until my last semester to take them.

Summer is Over

It was a good summer, but unfortunately, classes start tomorrow. I learned a lot this summer about myself, my work, and my life. Overall, it was a good time. I also got a lot of physical activity in. I kept up with everything that I did all summer, and here it is:

Weights:
-29 workouts total, consisting of exercises such as bench, curls, shoulder press, squats, leg extension, rows, pull-ups, etc
Running:
-approximately 85 miles total
-10 hours, 28 min, 6 sec
-approximate average pace of 7:32.4 min/mile
Cycling:
-343 miles
-22 hours, 24 min, 2 sec
-avg speed of 14.6 mph
-max speed of 45.6 mph
-max distance of 66.02 mi
Tennis:
-16 tennis matches played
Core Work:
-2671 push-ups
-3440 sit-ups
Swimming:
-only 800 meters swam, only swam once
Ergs:
-12976 meters rowed

That was my summer of workouts. I will continue most of this as a train with the Tri Club and compete this semester. After school, I will either compete only cycling, or triathlons. Who knows.

I do not like living 3 miles from campus...

I have decided that I do not like making the "trek" from Northport to campus in order to carry out the activities that take place there. Even though 3 miles is not that far, it feels like forever compared to living right behind Publix by the strip.
I attended Calvary's new contemporary service and Relate AM this morning. The new service is tiiiiiight. Haha. It was awesome.
This afternoon I went to hit some balls on the range at Ol' Colony Golf Complex. I was hitting all irons as well as my 3 wood very well. I think I'm going to play out there tomorrow or Tuesday, so hopefully I can pull a round in the 80's.
Tonight I helped recruit people for the crew club at a UP function over by the Ferg. It went pretty good, I suppose, so we will see what happens.

North Harbor Hot Hundred

Yesterday (Saturday 8/18), I rode 66 miles in the North Harbor Hot Hundred bike ride. Alongside with me were Jason Cottingham, John Person, and Person's dad. It was pretty crazy because the farthest that I had ever rode until yesterday was a meager 25 miles. Overall, the ride went very well. We came out blazing the first 25 miles, averaging 20.1 mph. Most of it was flat and there were a few downhills, and for most of it we were working a 4 man paceline or riding in a larger group. We took a rest stop after 25 miles, and then then another one at mile 54. After the first rest stop, a nice girl named Andrea joined our group- she is a member of the Tri Club at Alabama, and she was a very strong rider. Right before the second rest stop, I thought my quads were about to start cramping, but luckily they did not. With about 8 miles to go, Person's dad, Andrea, and I started working a 3 man pace line and we were hauling- and with 3 miles left I separated myself from them and started to hawk down 2 men that I saw in the distance. I ended up passing them on the last hill, and I sprinted the last straightaway to finish in style.
Race Stats:
Distance- 66.02 miles
Time- 3:38:45
Avg Speed- 18.11 mpg
Max Speed- 38.7 mph

Multiple Errands

Today's accomplishments:
-the running of 14 errands
-lunch with some friends
-tennis with Anderson, Person, and Adam
-the organization of all crap in my room

Tomorrow, I wake at 5:30 a.m. to head out and ride the North Harbor Hot Hundred bike ride. Jason, Person, and I are going to ride the 34 mile course instead of the hundred, mainly because it is so hot. If we are feeling good, we may do the 50. We shall see.

Wednesday + Thursday

On Wednesday, I did absolutely nothing all day until I decided to become active at 4 pm. At that time, I went on an easy 2.5 mile run at Shades Mountain Ballpark. Following the run, I ate dinner at the church and rested for a little bit. At 6:30 pm, I went on an easy 17 mile bike ride in the Bluff Park area.
On Thursday, my Dad and I played The Valley at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. I don't feel like explaining anything, but he ended up barely winning. Oh well. When I get home, I completed an engineering marvel by packing my car! My bike, due to its shape, was not able to be efficiently packed so I had to make up for it in other areas. After packing, I headed down to Tuscaloosa for good. After unpacking/arranging/cleaning the apartment, I went to lift weights at the rec, and then erged a 6K on the rowing machine. After this and dinner, Anderson and I played some tennis. We are actually pretty evenly matched, and we split the sets 1-1. It had been more than a month since I last played, and I hope to get in some more matches in the near future.
Things to do soon:
-play more golf
-row the double or a 4+/8+
-play more tennis
-rack up mileage on my bike
-start swimming again
-run here and there
If I wasn't so active, I don't know what I would do with my life.

Showdown on the 18th

Precursors to main events of the day included lunch with Eric and MiMi, as well as lounging around the house and listening to my iPod while I packed up some more stuff.
At about 4:45 p.m., Eric, my Dad, and I teed off of The Short Course at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. One thing that I have enjoyed about this summer is that I have been able to play a lot of golf, something that I have not had a lot of time to do during the past 4 years. The Short Course is and 18-hole-all-par 3 course, with even par being an obvious 54. It presents a good opportunity to work on the ever challenging short game of a golfer. I came out blazing today, shooting +1 on the first 5 holes. I don't think I hit a single green on those 5 holes, but I was scrambling like crazy. My sand wedge was deadly accurate, and my bump-and-run with a 7 iron was also working extremely well.
This bump-and-run shot is one that I have only recently figuratively added to my bag of shots, and I have found that in situations where I am just off the side of the green or instances where I am further off the green but I have a downhill approach to the green, it allows me to be consistently more accurate.
After the first 5 holes, I cooled off a little bit and ended up +9 over the front 9. I continued this cooling off phase at the start of the back 9, and my Dad started to heat up. I think at one point he had me by about 7 strokes or so. I was hitting my irons pretty solid all day, and I hit about or 7 of the greens in regulation. However, I had a trend going of making par on a hole and following it with a double bogey or two before regaining focus.
With 2 holes left to play, my dad stated that he was up 5 strokes on me. I had just come off a blow up hole in which I took a double par because I had some trouble getting out of the sand. I was determined to calm down, re-focus, and try to par out in hopes of a tie or a win (I was also hoping my dad would choke and make a double bogey on the last 2 holes).
Hole #17 was a par 3, 135 yards, mainly flat, and I elected to take my 9 iron off the tee. I hit a beautiful shot that faded slightly to align itself with the pin, and I found myself 15 feet away from the pin. After lining up the put, I played a 1 ft break to the left and.....drano! Birdie! My dad took a double bogey, and I had cut the lead down to 2 strokes.
Hole #18 was a par 3, 125 yards, mainly flat, with a difficult pin location on a skinny part of the green that jutted out of the back right hand corner. Knowing that I had to gain 2 strokes on this hole, I had to go straight for the pin instead of playing for the large part of the green which would lead to a longer put. I pulled out my pitching wedge, made good contact, and landed it on the skinny part by about 6 inches, leaving me 15 feet from the hole. My Dad landed on the fat part of the green, but left a monster of a put. He putted first and misjudged the downhill speed leaving him 15 feet past the hole. After leaving his next put short I putted, and came about about 6 feet short. His next put was for the win, and he barely missed it, followed by a tap in and a 5 for the hole. This meant that I had a 6 ft put for the tie! After a few deep breaths and some practice strokes, I putted, and...drano! Tie! Come from behind, 5 strokes in 2 holes!
Later on, I had a friendly debate with my parents about euthanasia, and all that know me know my opinion on the issue. Tomorrow will be another relaxing day. I will definitely go on a ride tomorrow.

The Bourne Ultimatum x 2

Moose, Eric, Stephanie, and I went and saw The Bourne Ultimatum, my second time to do so. I'm usually not one of those 2x-movie-watchers, but the movie is just so good.
As for the rest of today, I managed to move all of my stuff to the room upstairs to make room for my brother Keith who will be living downstairs in January. It wasn't too much stuff, but I took my time, going through around 75 to 100 songs on my iPod, which I set on shuffle mode. I also made a trip to Cahaba Cycles to pick up some tubes that they forgot to put in my bag which I picked up the bike.
One interesting thing that happened today was a call that I received from The Productivity Center at The University of Alabama. They were one of my possible jobs for the summer, but they offered me a job after I had already accepted with UPS. It was kind of random that they called me today, but oh well. I talked with a guy named Jason Hatter (I think?), an IE graduate from 1998. He asked me if I had any simulation experience, and I said that I had (while trying not to laugh). On top of a simulation course that I took last Spring (of which I was the first person in 2 years to make an A...I was joined by 2 other classmates in this feat), I also employed my simulation knowledge in our Senior Design course last Spring. Fellow classmate Jordan Johnston and I teamed up to complete a stellar computer simulation of the Children's South facility. Children's South is a branch of Children's Hospital, and it is located at the Acton Road exit off I-459. Anyways, the simulation was a masterpiece. Hatter told me that they were in need of some simulation knowledge, so we are having a meeting on Friday morning to discuss some possible work. After doing some thinking and consulting, however, I am not sure if I really want to tack on 10 hours of work to my schedule, but we will see.
At around 5:30 p.m., my Dad and I started biking to the church in order to meet up with a group of people that usually ride on Monday night. We took the Patton Chapel route to the church, and after meeting up with about 6 or so other bikers, we headed out. We actually ended up doing the rest of The Purple Onion Loop, a loop that Jamie, Phil, and I named because it passes by The Purple Onion on Highway 31. After heading back to the Preserve, the group turned to head back to the church up Patton Chapel, and I headed with them to get one last climb in. I turned around when it started getting dark, almost to the point where we usually turn off. The whole trip ended up being 18.6 miles or so.
As with today, I plan on floating through tomorrow and the rest of the next week and a half until school starts. I am eating lunch with Eric and MiMi (my grandmother), and I will probably continue to pack some stuff up. I want to go for a ride, but I don't know when. Eric, my Dad and I are going to try to play the Short Course at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, but that will not be until 4 or 5 p.m. If that doesn't pan out, I will probably ride and then go to The Basement. Either way, tomorrow should be very relaxing.

Done With Work!

I am officially done with work as of this past Friday, whew! It was an excellent experience, and I learned a whole lot about working in industry, how I can apply myself, what some of my strengths and weaknesses are, and a little more about how to become successful. Overall, I think it worked out very well for me, and my manager told me I basically have a job when I graduate, if I want it.
I headed down to Tuscaloosa this weekend to attend the wedding of Kelly Parker, as well as see a few friends one last time before they moved their separate ways. Overall, it was an extremely good weekend. I saw a lot of people I don't normally run in to too much, and I had some very interesting, thought-provoking, and deep conversations. I also managed to rack up around 7 to 7.5 miles or so, following my second-half-of-summer-tradition of running on the weekends (while cycling mostly during the week).
This week is going to be awesome. After being so busy all summer, I am going to float through these next 2 weeks, and I'm going to love it!

Current Music: Lipgloss and Letdown by A Static Lullaby

Early Shift + Testing Out The New Bike

As I previously posted, I worked this morning from 12:30 a.m. until 5:30 a.m. Since all of the University of Alabama student tickets were being delivered today, UPS needed all the help that they could get. Nicolas Willis (the other intern) and I, along with our manager Jon Rich, our supervisor Robyn Smaha, and a security manager managed to knock out the sorting of the 3000+ football ticket packages in about an hour and a half or so. However, the side that Nic and I were working on undoubtedly contained about 1/2 of the total volume. We had to sort the tickets into their specified routes. Each center in the Birmingham building (there are 3 of them: Southeast, Southwest, and Central) runs anywhere from 42 to 57 routes. Nic and I were working the Central routes, of which there were about 45. By the end of the sort, I had pretty much memorized each routes location in the bins that we had labeled. After sorting, we had to bag each route individually, labeling the bag with the route ID and the number of ticket packages inside. The bagging definitely took a lot longer than the sorting. When it was all said it done, the clock read 5:30 a.m., and I hurried home to bed. I slept from 6 a.m. until 4 p.m. It was awesome.
I met the Birmingham Bicycle Club out at Winn Dixie on Morgan Road at 6 p.m. for their weekly ride. I was extremely anxious to test my new bike out on a long ride. I joined Bryan Oliver (Jamie's dad), and 2 other men on a 25 mile loop through the back roads of the Bessemer area. I am very happy with how my bike feels. All of the reviews that I read on it were true: it is a very smooth ride. We finished the ride in 1:26:30 for an average speed of 17.37 mph. I plan on racking up some miles in the near future.

Exhausted

The last few days have been very exhausting. After a boring day at work on Monday, I ate some dinner and headed straight to Atlanta, GA to attend a sweet concert the next day. I stayed at a past teammate (Ben Sholes) of mines apartment. I woke up on Tuesday morning and headed to the Hifi Buys Amphitheater at noon to see 11 bands play at the Projekt Revolution Tour. Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, and Taking Back Sunday were the headliners, but other notables such as Saosin, Julien-K, Him, and Placebo also played. Obviously, Taking Back Sunday was awesome. I was very happy about their set list, which included mostly older stuff (which in my opinion is better). MCR was good, but I'm not too into them. Linkin Park was.............awesome! I wasn't too impressed with their latest CD that was just released, but to my surprise, they played a lot of older stuff....rocking Hybrid Theory big-time!
The concert lasted from 12:45 p.m. until 10:30 p.m., and it was brutally hot the whole day. I made it back to Birmingham around 12:15 a.m. on Wednesday morning, got a few hours of sleep, and headed to work. After work, I picked up my bike, wohoo! I took it for a ride this evening and it is sweeeeeet.
I have to go back to work at 12:45 a.m., and I'm not too happy about that. Alabama football tickets are going out tomorrow, so UPS needs all the extra help they can get, and I was somehow volunteered. I have gotten absolutely no sleep this week, and it is catching up to me.

I Win!

My Dad and I played another round of golf at Bentbrook today. I won by a decisive 3 strokes, shooting a 90 to his 93. I actually was up 5 strokes with 5 holes left to play, but he closed the gap ever so slightly thanks to my blow-up on the par three 16th. Whereas a 90 is a good score for me, it could have been better. My goal was to hit the high 80's, and had it not been for 2 instances that found my ball in a sand trap, I would have shot an 86. It took me 3 shots each time to get out of the trap. Besides those 2 holes, I played one of the most solid rounds of golf that I have ever played. I did have to incur 1 penalty stroke, however, when I barely missed clearing a pond by about 2 feet (I hit a very fat 3 iron). Anyways, in my book a win is a win.
Tomorrow, I will be heading to Atlanta, GA to attend the Project Revolution Tour, which headlines Taking Back Sunday, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, and Saosin among others. I can't wait! Unfortunately, I will most likely be making the trip alone, due to an unexpected schedule conflict of a friend. If anyone wants to go, let me know!

The Bourne Ultimatum

Anderson, Jimmy, and I just saw The Bourne Ultimatum. It was awesome.

Bourne: "Where are you?"
CIA Dude: "I'm in my office."
Bourne: "I doubt it."
CIA Dude: "Whys that?"
Bourne: "Because if you were, we'd be having this conversation face to face."
[Phone-hang-up-click]

BOOYAH!!!

I'm about to start reading the book of Exodus in my quest to read the Bible. Currently, I am 4.67% of the way through.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to the lovely Emily Britt, and also, I can't forget...happy birthday to the charming Melissa Rowland! These two very interesting, fun, and entertaining women deserve a good ole' "happy birthday"...they are probably 2 of the nicest people that I know! I joined the Britt family and some other friends at California Pizza Kitchen at the Summit, followed by a some chilaxin' and deep conversation at Joe Muggs. Fun night.

Long Day

Today consisted of our project implementation, which included changing up all the sort charts and labels and everything else in the Smalls Sort area, as well as staying until the workers came in and helping them with their daily tasks. I worked about 90 mph from 7:30 a.m., until 6:00 p.m. getting everything ready for the workers. We just barely finished in time. One annoying thing that happened today concerned one of the UPS janitors. When we got to the Smalls Sort area this morning, there were boxes everywhere. I don't know who put them there, but I definitely did not. Anyways, as I was working throughout the day, this one janitor would come by and say something like "Ya'll need to throw away those boxes," or "Gah, ya'll got trash everywhere." Being in the rush that I was, I had absolutely no patience at all, but somehow I managed not go off on him. Very annoying. You do your job, I'll do mine. I'm extremely tired now, and I don't have to be in tomorrow until noon:)

Work, The Basement, and Friends!

Work was pretty busy today. We are in the final stages of preparation before implementing our solution for the Smalls Sort area, a plan that will be carried out tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be a 7:00-7:15 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. workday, approximatley13 hours (after taking out lunch and dinner). Good news is that I probably will be off on Friday. Yay.
I headed out to The Basement tonight by myself after a few failed invites, but I ended up meeting the Britt sisters and Gina out there, 3 very amazing people that are very fun to be around! The worship was good, as it always is, and afterwards we headed to the bowling alley some others. I did not bowl, but I did eat a massive chocolate sundae with an enormous amount of whipped cream and a cherry on top. I can't wait to go back to Tuscaloosa to see all of my friends.
I just received word tonight that a fellow crew member, boat member for 2 years, and good friend Anderson Renaud just got engaged to his long time girlfriend, Brittani Tingle. They are both excellent people, and I am very happy for them.
I have read the first 26 chapters in the book of Genesis on my quest to read the Bible before I graduate. I am 35 pages in...approximately 2.44 % complete. Already, I have seen the amazing power of God with his Creation, his ability to keep all promises that he makes, and also his wrath. If I could sum it up in one word, it would be...MIGHTY. How can you not fear?
On another note, I have finalized my choice for my first road bike purchase. I will be getting a 2007 Lemond Alpe D'Huez. It is named after the mountain range in France on which a very brutal stage of the Tour de France is usually held. From my best research, it is pronounced Alp-ey-du-ez. However, I am not completely sure about this. Cahaba Cycles did not have the 2007 in stock, but I was able to test ride the 2006 model. I took it up a fairly decent hill right beside the shop, and I really enjoyed the way it climbed. What's even better is that the 2007 is going to be an even lighter bike! I am going to OWN hills with this thing.

Contador Wins, I Lose.

Alberto Contador, a 24 year old phenom from Spain, wins the 2007 Tour de France. Although it was pretty much over after yesterday's time trial (the 20th and final stage that ends in Paris is more of a formality for the riders), every once in a while, a rider may try to get cheap and gain some of the time bonuses on the 20th stage to move up some places. Being the classy and gentleman-like riders that they are, the 2nd and 3rd placed riders behind Contador (Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer) said that they would not attack each other or Contador, even though Contador only lead Evans by 23 seconds and Leipheimer was only 8 seconds behind Evans. It is insane that the top 3 riders' final times over 3000+ miles were separated by a mere 31 seconds. Unbelievable. In a Tour that was plagued with doping scandals that saw stage winners and yellow jersey holders removed from the race, it actually turned out to be one of the most exciting ones yet:)
This afternoon, my Dad and I headed out to Bentbrook to play a round of golf, in what was sure to be another epic shootout. We both started out striking the ball well, but neither of us could score, and we finished the front 9 dead even at 47-47. Both of us played significantly better on the back 9. My tee shots were almost always in the fairway or very near rough, and I was striking my irons and chipping around the green very well. After a mammoth 250 yard 3 wood down the middle of the fairway on hole 11, I had an easy 120 yard pitching wedge into the green. However, not knowing my own strength (haha), I powered it over the green and was stuck on the other side of a creek with about 5 trees in front of me. I had about a 5 foot opening in front of me, and a 10 foot vertical distance until I would hit a tree branch. Taking my sand wedge (I was too lazy to go get a 3 or 4 iron), I placed the ball in the back of my stance and hit a little punch shot that flew right in between the trees and landed about 10 ft from the pin. It was awesome. On hole 14, a 140 yard par 3, I grabbed my 8 iron and with a very solid stroke I knocked it 6 feet from the pin. Booyah. I then masterfully sank the testing 1-ft-breaker 5 foot put for a BIRDIE! However, after a few mishaps here and there and some stellar shots by my Dad (including hitting the flag stick from 150 out), it all came down to hole 18, as it always does. After my Dad missed a 10 footer for the win, all I had to do was sink a 10 footer of my own for the tie. I hit the put solid...good line...and...it lips out the right corner, no! I absolutely knew that I had it read right, but I think I hit it just slightly too hard. Final score: Dad-90, Chad-91. I'm happy with the 91 and the birdie, but none of that matters. I want the W.
I lifted some weights and ran my hill a few times later on tonight, since I've gotten to where I have to at least do something everyday. I love the way I feel after I have a really hard workout. Being in shape is awesome. I would recomend it to anyone who wants to improve their quality of life.
I have read 6 pages in Genesis on my quest to read the entire Bible. Current scripture: Genesis 3:17. Even though the summer is over, I still have some meat left on it. I am still going to see Taking Back Sunday, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, and Saosin in Atlanta. I am buying a bike this weekend. I have 70 hours of work left, and about $1K more to make before the end of the summer. I am, however, ready to go back to Tuscaloosa.

I Love Saturday's

Part of my daily information gathering routine usually involves keeping up with a few of my friends that blog consistently. While catching up with Trevvor Clark, a friend and teammate (rowing) of mine, I have been motivated to complete a task which I have said I was going to do a few times before: reading through the entire Bible. My plan is to finish before graduation, 140 days from now, and at 1434 pages, that is an average of 10 pages a day. I have no doubt that this will be an extremely beneficial asset to my spiritual life, and I am going to take on this activity as I do all others: at 110%
I am about to go run a few trails back behind the Preserve. Depending on how my legs feel, I might run longer than the normal 3.1 mile trail loop that Jamie and I have completed so many times this summer.
I plan on watching the entire replay of the Tour de France's final time trial tonight, so if anyone tries to tell me who won, I am going to be extremely upset, haha! Although unlikely, I hope that the GC looks like the following after today:
1. Levi Leipheimer
2. Alberto Contador
3. Cadel Evans
American Team Discovery is pretty much dominating:) This is also partly due to Team Astana withdrawing because of the demoralizing doping acts of star rider Alexander Vinokourov.

Wonderful, so wonderful
Is Your unfailing love
Your cross has spoken mercy over me
No eye has seen, no ear has heard
No heart could fully know
How glorious, how beautiful you are!

Beautiful One, Tim Hughes

I Did Absolutely Nothing Today

Actually, I did, but comparatively speaking, I did not. I worked from 7:45 a.m. until 11:35 a.m. because we stayed late yesterday. When I got home, I deposited my paycheck, got my head shaved, and then cycled 15 miles. Besides these 4 things, I did absolutely nothing all day. I'm pretty bored right now as I type this...
I really would like for American Levi Leipheimer to win the Tour de France, but I do not think that it is going to happen. Alberto Contador, Levi's teammate, is in the lead, but Predictor's Cadel Evans is less than 2 minutes behind. I have a gut feeling that Evans might take the lead in tomorrow's individual time trial and secure the yellow jersey.
I plan on sleeping in late tomorrow. I have absolutely nothing planned for the day except to watch the Tour de France time trial in the late evening. I will probably go on a ride or run, whichever I fancy at that particular moment.
Only 2 weeks left of work:)

Boring Week at Work

This week has been incredibly boring at work, as we are in between projects. However, we got treated to O'Charleys today, wohoo! So far this week, I have worked out twice, biked 31 miles, ran a mile, done 200 push-ups and 500 sit-ups, and jumped some rope. This afternoon, I'm heading out to ride at Oak Mountain with the Birmingham Bike Club for their weekly Watermelon Ride, in which everyone is treated to watermelon afterwards (hence the name). I'm pretty tired right now, and I can't wait to do absolutely nothing this weekend, as well as play a round of golf with my Dad.

Weekend

For whatever reason, whenever I am about to leave work, I always get assigned a last-minute task that causes me to stay past my regular departure time. Friday was no exception, but that wasn't a surprise because we were pretty busy with Harry Potter stuff. When I got home, I went on 3.5 mile or so trail run in the blazing heat, stopped by Birchtree to cool off, skipped lifting weights, loaded my car, and headed down to Tuscaloosa to move into my new apartment.
I moved all of the stuff that I had packed up last weekend to my new place at River Run over in Northport by City Cafe. Of course, it was raining the whole time, but I managed all right. After moving some stuff, I hung out with Jordan and some people for awhile, before heading to see Marley for the last time for who knows how long, sad!
Keith headed down on Saturday morning with a truck, and the rest of the day proceeded as follows:
-load all of Keith's furniture into truck
-take truck to my old apartment
-load all of my stuff
-drive to my new apartment
-unload all of my stuff
-drive to Jamie's apartment
-load Jamie's and Eric's furniture (in that order)
-drive to Eric's new apartment
-unload all of Eric's furniture
Of course I am making this sound like more than it actually was, but it was a good solid 3 hour job. I was reminded of memorable moves from last summer, when I worked for Gentle Giant Moving Company up in Boston, MA. After moving all of the furniture, I headed back to my old place to put the rest of my random crap in my car and to help Matt, Jimmy, and his Mom clean our apartment, as our lease will run out on Tuesday. After cleaning, I dropped off some stuff at my new place, and then Jamie and I watched Stage 13 of the Tour de France, which was a time trial. Alexander Vinokourov from team Astana completely dominated everyone, but Michael Rasmussen was still able to hold on to the yellow jersey, despite historically sucking at time trial stages.
Today was pretty uneventful. Jamie, Phil, Matt Martin, and I biked the Purple Onion loop this evening, averaging right at 16.0 mph for the 15 mile ride. I set a new personal max speed record will riding down Hackberry, hitting 45.6 mph. It was freakin' scary. I'm going to bed.

I Hate Harry Potter

In what is probably an excellent business deal, UPS landed the new Harry Potter book deliveries (awhile ago), and they are going out tomorrow. I hate Harry Potter...both the story and the fact that all I have been doing for the last 2 days is try to idiot-proof the delivery plans to all bookstores and households in Alabama. Blah.
I rode 17.7 miles after work, trying to hit as many hills as possible. My quads are shocked. I'm going to Tuscaloosa tomorrow for the weekend to move into my new apartment. Also, I will be seeing my good friend Marley McKenzie for the last time before she moves way far away to Pennsylvania to attend Mercyhurst. I wish I could have a whole week of weekends.

And all I (all I)
Need to know (need to know)
Is that I'm something you'll be missing
(is that I'm something that you're missing)
(maybe I should hate for this)
Maybe I should hate you for this
Never really did ever quite get that far
(maybe I should hate for this)
Maybe I should hate you for this
Never really did ever quite get that...
-Taking Back Sunday

O.A.R.

A bunch of us went and saw O.A.R. play tonight at Sloss Furnace, and it was aweeeeesome! The finished with Black Rock and of course, Crazy Game of Poker. INSANE!!!

Work was boring yesterday, and today we started working on the plans for the new Harry Potter book deliveries...it's kind of a big deal. I ran 5.5 miles yesterday, did nothing today, and tomorrow I plan on biking the Purple Onion Loop. Peace.

Hilly Ride

Work was boring today, so I will not comment about. Also, if your name is Heather Wiginton, then I am mad at you:)
Jamie, Phil, and I went on a [check the title of this entry] bike ride this evening. We rode to Hoover High, up Brock's Gap (massive hill), and then all the way up Shades Crest Road (long hill) before flying down Patton Chapel and coming home through the Preserve. We averaged slightly over 15.1 mph for the ride, which was surprising considering that more than half the ride was up some kind of hill.
I am about halfway through reading Running with the Buffaloes...and thus far, I am pretty impressed. The workouts that the University of Colorado's Cross Country Team does are insane. The top runners are averaging anywhere from 80 to 110 miles a week, and most of it is at a pace of 6:15 or under. I might could run a 5K at that pace, but nothing more. However, that might be different if I ran more than like 10-15 miles a week. I think that during the Fall, I am going to attempt 40 miles a week for as long as a can...and we will see what happens.
I'm pretty tired, I think I'm going to read some and go to bed. Cheers.

The Weekend

The main objective this weekend was to pack up my apartment since I am moving to my new one next weekend, with a side objective of seeing some friends! I'd say the 2 objectives were sufficiently met.
Earlier this evening, Jamie, Matt Martin, and I went on a 15 mile bike ride on what we have officially named the Purple Onion Loop, since the route passes by the restaurant at the 9 mile mark or so. Matt has been running like 90 miles a week this summer, so being in such good shape, he was definitely pushing Jamie and I. We finished the course in exactly an hour.
I'm pretty tired...hopefully work will be easy tomorrow.

More Domination at Work

I finalized the designs for the Smalls Sort at UPS today, with complete domination! We meet with Jon Rich, the Package Planning Manager, tomorrow at 3 p.m. I was actually planning on going in at 7 a.m. so I could be off for the weekend by 2:20 p.m., but I guess a manager's decision trumps my plans. Oh well.
Jamie and I had a pretty good workout today. Our Friday lifts are our "bulk days," in which we focus on higher weight and lower reps. I also knocked out some more push-ups later this evening.
Tonight, I started a new book, Running With the Buffaloes by Chris Lear, an account of the 1998 season of the University of Colorado Men's Cross Country Team. I knocked out the first 50 pages of it, and it is extremely interesting. Hopefully, I'll have it finished in a week or so.
I'm ready for the weekend.

Domination at Work

I made significant progress today at work in my attempt to re-design the Smalls Sort at UPS. I have all but finalized the design, and after an initial "looks good" from the Package Planning Manager, I will meet with him tomorrow or Friday for a more in depth review. I'm kind of glad to be done with the MPG Initiative project...it was very interesting and all, but very long, and after 5 to 6 weeks on it I was ready to move on.
Phil, Jamie, Jamie's Dad, and I went on a close-to-15 mile bike ride this evening. We started out climbing up Patton Chapel Road before snaking through Bluff Park and on down to the end of Shades Crest Road, where we turned right and headed towards Highway 31 before coming home through Star Lake and back down Patton Chapel. After stretching and resting, I knocked out 90 push-ups. 20 of them were one-armed (left arm), 20 were one-armed (right arm), 20 were 5 second negatives, 10 were declined, and 20 were normal.
We have biked twice this week, and my legs are pretty shot. I think I may take tomorrow off from doing any kind of physical activity.

He is Mighty Enough to Save

Everyone needs compassion
A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
A kindness of a Savior
The hope of nations

My Savior
He can move the mountains
My God is Mighty to save
He is Mighty to save
Forever
Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything i believe in
Now i surrender

Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus

Christ is not only “mighty to save” those who repent, but he is able to make men repent. He will carry those to heaven who believe; but he is, moreover, mighty to give men new hearts and to work faith in them. He is mighty to make the man who hates holiness love it, and to constrain the despiser of his name to bend the knee before him.
-Charles Spurgeon

Another Monday

Today was pretty boring:
-I finally got in touch with Mike Boone, the Tuscaloosa manager, after about a week of trying to contact him...it was about the only worthwhile thing that got accomplished today
-The weather changed about 15 times today
-It took Jamie and I 3 tries to find a tennis court that wasn't in use
-I'm tired from yesterday's bike ride and today's push-ups/sit-ups
-I'm trying to finish up a scholarship application

Keith arrived home today, so it was good to see him. Hopefully tomorrow will be less boring at work, or else, I'm going to be in horrible shape.

Some humor:
Man robs bank disguised as tree, haha!

A Good Weekend

At the time of my last post, I was basically walking out the door to meet my good friend Ben Sholes to ride up to Huntsville, AL. I suppose this post will be semi-not-short, as it will cover the whole weekend.
I would be staying with Ben for the weekend, while also attending the wedding of Mr. Matt Beaver. We left my car in the Cost Co. parking lot by the Galleria, and headed off in Ben's semi-new sweet BMW. The ride went by pretty quick...Ben and I had a nice lengthly conversation on my job for the summer, his job (of around half a year) at PWC, as well as various business topics such as CPI, management, and what kind of work I want to do, among other things. After arriving in Huntsville, we talked with his parents for a bit and then hit the sheets around midnight or so.
On Saturday morning, we all awakened around 10 a.m., and the Sholes family treated at a restaurant called Red Robin, which is similar to Johnny Rockets (for those residing in the Birmingham area). After a filling lunch, we all went back to the Sholes's residence and hung out until around 3 p.m. or so. At this time, we proceeded to get ready for the wedding, as we were scheduled to start making our way there at around 4:15 p.m. We rolled out at around 4:30 p.m., and arrived at the wedding location at around 4:55 p.m. It was at some sweet little place (I don't know what to call it), and the weather actually turned out pretty nice, even though it had rained a good bit the day before. I had been getting pretty excited about the wedding, because I knew that a lot of familiar faces would be there:)
To name a few, Mr. Kyle Carlton (and his wife of course) were in attendance. I had the pleasure of rowing in a spectacular 4+ with Kyle the Spring season of my sophomore year. We medaled at Aiken Co. and John Hunter Regattas that semester, as well as becoming the first men's boat form the U of A to race at the Dad Vail Regatta up in Philadelphia, PA, as well as making it into the semi-finals at this prestigious race. Other good faces to see include (but are not limited to) Lucian Hornbuckle (and his wife), Jason and Allison, Chris Thomas and Stamps, Larry "D", and a slew of ladies including Rachel K., Marley, Bryn, McKee, Vic, Rachel J., Cristin, Leigh Ann, Ali, Cara...and I'm sure that I'm leaving someone out! Point is, I really enjoyed seeing all these people and catching up with them!
The ceremony itself was short and sweet, lasting only about 15 minutes, but we stayed around the reception and caught up with old friends for another 3 hours or so. From there it was back to the Sholes's house...we were all pretty worn out. Breakfast this morning was at Cracker Barrel (thanks Mr. and Mrs. Sholes!), and I met up with Marley and Bryn to ride back home around 9:30 a.m.
I will say that I'm pretty impressed with the 2007 4Runners (Marley's new car), as it provided an excellent, comfortable ride back home. I was chillin' in the back seat, windows down, sunroof down, sun shinin', and wind in my face, and it gave me a nice chance to relax, clear my mind, and worship God in my only little way, since I would be missing the usual Sunday morning service. We made it back quickly, and Marley dropped Bryn and I off at my car before darting back to Tuscaloosa for some commitment. Bryn's flight back to FL did not leave until 6:05 p.m., so being the excellent friend I am:), I sought out to entertain for the afternoon before dropping her off at the B'ham airport. After a stellar lunch and some cheesy end to a Steven Segal movie, we became engrossed in the movie K-PAX, which was playing on the Sci-Fi channel. It finished up just in time to run her to the airport, so I quickly did that and headed back to get a workout and bike in.
Jamie and I lifted our weights as usual, and at around 6:30 p.m., Phil met up with us for a bike ride. We ended up riding about 18 miles, traveling up Patton Chapel, through Bluff Park, down to Alford Avenue, and back around, finishing with a nice spring down Patton Chapel and then up into the Preserve. I will note, however, that we encountered some murderous climbs, and the usually not-to-bad 18-miler seemed rather tiring. Our competitive fires got going when finishing up the last leg down Patton Chapel: Phil was already a little ahead, as he was first in line, and we had to slow down for a stop sign. After passing the stop sign, Jamie started to hawk down Phil, and I positioned myself right off his back wheel and took off with him. We caught him after 30 seconds or so, and then, right before the crest of the next hill, Jamie's chain popped off. I quickly flew by him and rode even with Phil until the bend by Simmons before falling back in line. Max speed on the hill: 40.8 mph, yea! We quickly headed home since darkness was approaching rapidly.
That was my weekend, and hopefully this week will be cool. I don't plan on doing anything on Friday, since it is Friday the 13th, ahhhhhhhh! I do plan on attending The Basement on Tuesday though, as well as completing my regular weekly workouts, and hopefully I'll get in a round of golf.

She's Everywhere!

It has been brought to my attention that I have left an unusual circumstance of my life out of my blog recently. For the past few weeks, I have been randomly running into my dear friend Heather Joy Wiginton.....everywhere! First it was pumping gas at Exxon, then it was in passing on Sulphur Springs Road and Highway 150, among other places, and finally last night it was outside of the Publix Shopping Center on 150 down towards 459. In the latter of these instances, I was practically run over by her (haha, kidding)! Anyways, I thought I would acknowledge these aforementioned series of chance events, because they brighten my day!

End of the 4th + the 5th

I really didn't do much on our Nation's birthday, except eat a lot (a traditional happening in my family) and play a lot of tennis (a traditional happening for the summer).

Work today was good........we reorganized the whole Smalls Sort area, which may sound rather elementary, but I guarantee you that productivity will go up by at least 5% in that area.......and that is what IE is all about. This reminds me of a comment I recently heard in response to the University of Alabama closing down the IE department. Some uninformed student proceeded to say that IE's work in manufacturing alone, and their skill set is overlapped by other engineering disciplines. Hmmmmm, that couldn't be farther from the truth. If it was true, would I really be working for UPS? (obviously, a not a manufacturing company) I would ask this gentleman to look at the manufacturing and service industries as a whole, and then get back to me.

My Dad has started up a Bible Study at our house on Thursday nights, and tonight was the first session. It went pretty well I would say, even though there were only about 4 of us, haha. If anyone is interested, please let me know.

I ran 2 miles today, finishing with a nice sprint up our hill (which rises 112 feet in elevation). This was followed by 5 x 25 push-ups and 5 x 60 sit-ups. The push-ups are getting easier as the summer progresses, which is good. I actually knocked out a few one-handed, to my surprise, as I was just trying out of pure boredom.

Tomorrow, after work and workouts, I will head to Huntsville, AL to see a good friend and ex-boat member Matt Beaver get married. He is marrying Stephanie Rainey, a former crew member who I also know. Beaver and I held down the bow pair in our 4 man shell along with Jason Cottingham and Drew Hall back in the Fall of 2005. I have to say, that was probably the fastest and smoothest boat I have ever been in, and we received medals at the Chattanooga Head Race as well as the Head of the Hooch (the 2nd largest collegiate regatta in the nation). Also, we raced at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta, placing 9th out of around 40 shells, finishing in the top 5% to earn a guaranteed entry for the next year. What a great semester. They are getting married on Saturday (7/7/07), so it should be fun. Also, I get to see a bunch of good friends from the years such as Ben Sholes (my cox'n all but one semester), Jason Cottingham (my stroke for 2 years and boat member for 3), his girlfriend (coach for a year and teammate for 2 years), as well as my favorites Rach, Bryn, and Marley, wohooooo!

I am about to dive into Sowell's Basic Economics, as I just finished Friedman's The World is Flat last night. Maybe I'll tell you what I got out of the description of the flat world next time, as this post is already too long.

The third, and Happy 4th!

I was entirely too tired to post yesterday......so here goes. We started our new project at work, with the objective of re-designing their Smalls Sort area. Also, we completed a few load quality audits while the pre-loaders were loading the trucks. As one of my colleagues (Robyn Smaha, a very young, genius of a woman with an MBA) was showing me how to complete an audit, she found 2 mis-loads on the very first truck! A mis-load is simply a package that has been put on the wrong truck, which is a very big deal. The Manager of that particular line then proceeded to destroy the pre-loader.......I felt kind of bad for him! I completed the rest of the audits, and lucky for them, no more mis-loads were found.

After work Jamie and I completed our second out of three upper-body workouts for the week, and this particular workout utilized the "high-rep-low-weight" method. After lifting, we headed straight to Chace Lake to play some doubles tennis with Moose and Matt Sterley. After last weeks pitiful performance, Sterley and I were determined to dominate, like we knew that we could. We came out blazing, taking the first set 6-0. We fell into a little rut in the second set, however, and were down 4 games to 1 right off the bat. After a quick regrouping though, we proceeded to win the next 5 games to take the second set 6-4. After this amazing comeback, it was pretty much over. My first serve was pretty much unstoppable the last game, and throughout the whole match, I think my serve was only broke one time. I think we won the third set 6-1 or 6-2, but to one watching, it probably looked like 6-0. Just like last week, my net play was rather sub-par, but my forehand was pretty strong, and I would estimate that I probably hit 70% of my first-serves, and that number probably jumped to 85% in the third set.

After our 6-0, 6-4, 6-1 win, we switched it up for a Jamie/Chad vs. Moose/Sterley 1 set match-up. We fell down to a 1-4 deficit, but then started to post a miraculous comeback. Jame's net play combined with my back court play helped us get it as close as 4-5, but they eventually closed out the last game for the win. I am confident, however, that next time we can squeak out a "W."

I just ate my 4th of July lunch, and the menu was as follows:
-Pork tenderloin
-Baked potato
-Baked beans
-Cheese bread
-Watermelon
-Chocolate chip pound cake

Needless to say, I am stuffed right now. Who knows what the rest of the day will bring....maybe I'll get into trouble with some fireworks.

My legs hurt

I started off the day strong, waking at 8:30 a.m. to go lifts some weights at the Hoover REC Center. Today was a leg day, so the workout consisted of squats, calf raises, leg extensions, and leg curls. I reached the 300 lb milestone on squats today, finishing my 5th set with 2 reps of 305 lbs. My goal for the summer, as I previously stated, is to be able to max 400 lbs, which means I will probably be finishing my last set with about 340 to 350 lbs. At the rate I am going, I will be there in approximately 4 weeks.

I rolled into work at noon, since I was supposed to work the Local Sort today. For the first 4 hours or so, I made some final adjustments to our project and tried to contact the Manager over in Tuscaloosa, but he did not answer. When the trucks started coming in, we went out to do some check-in audits. These are very necessary in order to find out what UPS is doing wrong and how they can make it better, and it serves as a complimentary back-end to the Planning methodologies. Anyways, we are starting a new project tomorrow that focuses on the "smalls sort." Every package that is a "small" (pretty much, this means that you can hold it in one hand) is bagged in a special container. This method helps decrease damage claims and provides a means for shipping simplification by allowing UPS to group all boxes that are going to one particular place in one container. Our project is pretty vague right now, but it has something to do with improving this operation.

After work, Jamie and I went on a 5.5 mile run down through Lake Crest, around the lake, and back. We made the run in 43 min and 11 sec, which averages out to around 7:51 a mile. It was probably one of the most painful, easy runs I have ever been on. After the first mile, my legs felt like complete jello due to my leg workout this morning. The whole rest of the run was a drag, but I guess some days are like that. It was pouring rain when we started out, but my the end of the run it was pretty humid, and I could see the steam coming off the concrete as we progressed through the run. Also, if you were wandering how I knew the exact distance of our run even though it was party on trails, there is this SWEET website where you can draw your own routes on a map powered by Google, and it automatically tracks the distance as well as any elevation changes. Check it out here.

I ran across three outrageous articles today at work:
Crazy!
Crazier!
Craziest!

Also, I heard a pretty funny quote at work from one of the Managers:
(pointing to a guy who was putting packages in a container)....

"This guy scans like 3000 packages a night. He's unstoppable. He must be on cocaine, speed, or crack."

Cool ban + Stuff

England definitely knows what is up.....CHECK THIS OUT.

Today's accomplishments:

-Sunday School and an entirely too long Church Service
-a nice meal of pot roast, potatoes, and carrots
-a solid upper body workout with Phil and Jamie
-survival of a few lightning strikes and a power outage
-an interesting conversation with Ms. Micheletti concerning diets, haha, among other things
-50 pages of reading in The World is Flat (only 66 pages to go)
-taught my Mom how to use Microsoft Excel
-jammed out to some Taking Back Sunday
-completed my daily news gathering routine
-[currently] finishing up a scholarship application

What is up with all of this violence directed towards the UK?

Lazy Saturday

Today was a pretty lazy day. I did not get to play golf, because it started thundering about the time we were going to go, and a golf club is basically a lightning rod. After waking up at noon, I lounged around all afternoon while washing clothes and watching TV. When Jamie got off work at 8 p.m., he joined Phil and I for a run (somewhere between 2.5 and 3 miles) through the Preserve. After that, we headed to Nick Barry's new house for some burgers, and now I'm about to get some sleep. Cheers.

Friday

Yesterday (Friday), I worked the early shift at UPS from 4 a.m. until 11 a.m. Our project was finally going down, so we had to be there when all of the truck changes were made. Everything actually went smoother than I thought, as there was only 2 or 3 trucks that were in the wrong place. However, we will see on Monday how everything else went, because I'm pretty sure that some of the senior drivers will have something smart to say.

The rest of the day consisted of:

• a nice 3 hour nap
• solid lunch and dinner food
  
• reading about globalization
  
• a 2 mile run with Phil and Jamie
• 120 push-ups
• 290 sit-ups
• 1/2 gallon of Gatorade
• La Brisa
• Dueling pianos at Twist and Shout

Moose, Phil and I are playing 9 holes at Chace Lake later today, so that should be fun. Maybe I'll hit a hole-in-one or something.

Bike, Golf, and Tennis

Phil, Jamie, and I went on a 10.36 mile bike ride around Hoover. We started out in the Preserve, went out to Star Lake and rode around there, and finally ended up going through the Preserve and back to my house. It was really weird......at several points in the ride, we picked up random bikers to ride in our pack, and it almost felt like a pick-up basketball game. A guy would join us for a few miles, leave, and then someone else would show up. I guess Thursday evenings are prime time for riding.

After biking, we headed to Phil's to hit golf balls into his new, MASSIVE net. I tried out his new Taylor Made irons and driver, and they are sweet. I'd say I probably hit around 30 to 40 balls, comparable to a small bucket at the range. As if we had not done enough physical activity today, we then headed to Birchtree to play some tennis. We didn't actually play a real game and keep score, but we just volleyed back and forth trying to hit crazy shots.

I have to be up in 4 hours and 40 minutes, so I should probably get to sleep. However, this was quite the common situation this past Spring, when I almost always got to bed between midnight and 1 a.m. while having to get up at 5 a.m. for crew practice. However, I am not suggesting in any way that it will be easy, or that I enjoy doing it.