Deloris (My new bike)

Last week I purchased a new touring bike, an excellent purchase if I do say so myself. A 1991 Bianchi Peregrine. It is a steel lugged 26 inch MTB that I will set up for my summer 2010 tour. So far, none of my bikes have been named. . . I've decided this one will be named "Deloris." I got the bike from an old lady who owned the bike previously, her name was Deloris, so I figured it fitting for the bike to be named as so. 

Soon (before I go to Florida in January), she will be equipped with Yellow Planet Bike Fenders, a front Lowrider Axiom Rack, a Rear Aluminum Rack, and a Front Porter Style Add-On to the Lowrider.

This is a picture of another bike. Same Model/Colors. 

Where Am I Headed?

Lately my brain has been trickling with ideas for this summer, school, graduating!, and what i'm going to do after school. 

After my past summer my world has been a little rocked by what I would like to do with my life. I am still studying Business & Music and will have earned two bachelor's degree by the time I graduate, a BA in Business Administration & a BA in Music Business. Other than that, a lot of things are going to change...

This summer I am planning on touring for the whole 97 days of summer break. No, I don't have a lot of money but after this summer I will take a step in the direction of the "real world." I have been getting by doing medical studies and doing other odd jobs (substitute teaching) to produce the cash I have, which has gotten me by pretty well. I have no definite plans for the summer as of yet, just biking. If the Trek to Re-Energize can be pulled back together for 2010, I am all hands in for that (San Francisco to D.C.). If not, I will probably be following the Lewis & Clark trail from home (Missouri) to Washington, then north to Alaska. This trip is happening because it is my last summer with a big time gap where I will be able to do what I want without too many constraints for at least 5 or 6 years.

From Indiana

After this summer, I suppose the "real world" will be setting in. I will be either graduating Fall 2010 or Spring 2011. Either way, Fall 2010 will include more upper level business classes along with my Music Business internship. Needless to say, Fall 2010 will probably be a painful semester.

I have decided that after I graduate I will not be joining the Peace Corps,right away. Granted, that would be the optimal time to do it, I just don't see it happening then. After graduation I  will end up joining the work force, hopefully somewhere other than STL, doing something in the business field. Work for about 5 years then do Peace Corps. With experience in the business field i'll have a higher chance of doing what i'd like in the Peace Corps (Economic Development). 

After that will probably come Grad School but who knows?

Joan Osborne, The Holmes Brothers, & Paul Thorne

Possibly the most painful concert of my life. 

Granted it wasn't my style and it was free. It still was painful.

The Rules of Diplomacy

After a few conversations that have happened in the past weeks, a topic came up in my "Pricing & Strategy Negotiations" class that I thought was very relevant to keeping life in order.

Obviously, the main topic of the class is pricing, setting prices, and negotiating prices. Just this past week we started studying a chapter over "Price Competition," talking about positive sum, zero sum, and negative sum games in relation to pricing. Finally, we arrived at the "Rules of Diplomacy." These rules entailed how to react to competitors and the price wars that happen in the business world. They made a lot of sense and seemed like they could be applied to life pretty easily. 

The rules are as follows:

1.) Make your intentions & capacities clear.

2.) Be Consistent.

3.) React quickly to threats directed towards important aspects of your life (markets or accounts in the pricing game).  

4.) Don't hold a grudge.

I tried finding a "real list" of some rules of diplomacy (other than the board game) online but had no luck. These are from my pricing text book.

I'm not saying that I follow these rules every second of my life. I will say that if one were to follow these as close as possible, especially in a relationship or their social life in general, a lot of problems could be solved or altogether removed.

Will I try to follow these? For Sure, I feel like I do pretty well with them at this point in my life as it is. 

P.S. I now have a twitter, I caved. My Twitter.

For your listening enjoyment. . . 

Who Killed the Conversation?

For a while I have been thinking about doing this and after reading an article online about it the other day, I am going to follow through. . .

Since I've had a cell phone, i've had text messaging, just like everyone else in this world. I've soon realized that conversations via text messages are probably one of the most ridiculous things in the world.

Let me be a little bit more specific about this pandemic. Text messages are specifically useful for instances where the phone call would last under 10 seconds, usually involving telling someone you're at their place, you will meet them somewhere at a specific time, sending them an outlandish picture and/or quote, etc. . .

The problem is not with those messages, but lies when you start having "deep" or "meaningful" conversations over text messages with people who are "close" to you. Or also, people you have just met. Once you start having these conversations I feel like you lose the intimacy and connection that come from what the 20th Century calls a "Face to Face" conversation where you sit down with each other, and talk. Or you call them, if for some reason you cannot talk to them face to face, and have the conversation that is intended to be had.

Not to mention the interpersonal skills that you lose by using text messaging. I swear that I see people walking around messaging people more than they speak to other human beings. Also, what about peoples writing skills? Soon words start missing letters and have numbers added 2 them. I'd love to see some papers wrote by people who are fluent in the "IM" language. Check out this short snippet.

Now, I know that this blog may be hypocritical for the sheer fact that I have had these conversations before via text message and sent tens of thousands of texts per month on a pretty regular basis. . . This is the reason for this blog, today this ends for me. Text messages will be only used for the ease of communication (i.e. can't call due to loud noise, in class, conversation would be shorter to just send a message) or to kill boredom (this excludes any "deep" conversations). Who knows what this will lead to, we will find out. . . 

Here are a few picture diagrams to help you visualize what these are like, in case you may have never experienced some of these. . .

A text message conversation. . .

A telephone conversation. . .

A face to face conversation. . .

Social Ranting Blog: I'm Last.

The other night as Cory & I were driving to the STL Bike Co-Op we had a discussion about how we do not really blog much anymore. Cory always had a mock diary blog and I usually stuck to blogging about my trips. Since I am not traveling at the moment thanks to a thing called "School," I figured I will start doing thoughts on conversations that I have with people, or as I would like to call it, a little social ranting blog.

A few days ago I had a talk with someone about how much time that they spend doing things for other people, school, music ensembles, etc. They said they wished they had enough time to just go out and do something that would be relaxing to them. . .

This is something I realized this summer, it is necessary to do relaxing things when you need them, or even if you don't. Making time to relax, enjoy yourself, and do something you love to do is a pretty key component in de-stressing my day. When touring this summer I would, usually after dinner, go somewhere alone and write about my day and reflect. That was de-stressing. 

Now that I'm back at school I usually accomplish this through biking. Every day I roll out on my bike, sometimes with no destination in mind, out to push and enjoy myself. Zoning out and wandering through the country side is one of the most relaxing things to me. No one is trying to push opinions on me, no one trying to get me to go do something with/for them, just me doing my thing.

It blows my mind more people don't do this for themselves? Even if you do have to study all night or have engagements all day, you can always find time (even 15-20 minutes) to do something that is YOUR relaxation time, stress & worry free.

Try it.

Got the touring itch

Lately I have been pretty antsy to get on the bike, load up everything I need, and take off again. . . Due to school that will definitely not happen anytime soon. I have 3-4 trips in the making right now, they are as follows:

Late December - Bike from Owensville, MO to Higginsville, MO (2 days)
Mid-January - Drive to Florida, Tour, Drive back (7 days)
May 16 - (Potentially) Bike from STL to San Fransico (6 Weeks)
After that - Trek to Re-Energize 2010? To DC

It's not like I do not ride enough at the moment, I just dislike riding back to the same place I started everyday. . .

My touring bike will be needing some upgrades before it is even rideable again. A new rear wheel after that blow out incident on the C&O Canal Trail in August. One new set of panniers. My rear Cannondale panniers from the 90's held up but my newer, although cheaper, set started ripping at the seams... They will have to be replaced. The tires should have another 1,500 miles on them... & now that I have a GPS for my Road Bike, I will be able to use that on tour!

Here are a few pictures from when The Trek was crossing the Appalachian Mountains: