child of 2

that's why I got TWO cats

did you turn on the fan?

how did that cat get onto that ceiling fan? unless you put him there...

it's cool to get all of these perspectives. Maybe in the near future, I will pick up coffee. I can't keep my freaking eyes open during those freaking office meetings. I don't think my boss is too pleased to see me squinting my eyes and sitting there like a vegetable.

I think because my area has a cat infestation, it's been pretty easy to find a cat. I got mine on craigslist, after a couple of weeks of searching. I got these two for free at 1 month old, from a couple who were giving them away. Vaccination and neutering are a 1 time deal. Personally, I'm only going to get Junior's balls snipped to level his aggression towards Oreo when they're playing. That can be done for ~$45 at my local budget clinic. Vaccination is $17 I believe. And if you have a cat that won't be going out at night, I personally don't see the need for vaccinations.

I grew up in Ames. It SUCKS for young people. Nice quiet if you want to settle down and have a family. But if you're young and want lots to do, stay the hell away!!

Junior and Oreo. This was back when they were like 1 month old. They're now 3 months old. Toilet training is progressing, but has it's downfalls. Today, I saw Oreo brushing her paws inside the bathtub. Didn't realize that was her getting ready to take a shit. But when I realized it, I picked her up, literally as she was taking the shit, and put her on the toilet trainer bowl. I had two pieces of shit that didn't make it into the trainer bowl. But we'll get there...

how about smartphone multi taskers?

here's why I don't care for facebook, flash games and all those fancy apps I'm at phase 4 now, and i'd rather keep at that before I become one of those smartphone cyber witches. Actually I think I might forgo the thought of getting a smartphone. the GPS kills the battery, and my old GPS is good enough to allow me to save locations and not get lost. My family pays $16 bucks/month for our plan... also, I can afford to drop my phone, and not give a shit. Thanks for the help though

I have a flip phone right now, under a family plan with my parents, and I don't pay for it. Right now, all my phone does is call, text, and take blurry pictures. But I'm contemplating on upgrading to a smartphone. The primary reason I would do it would be to get a small nifty GPS that would let me look up places and go. Also, it would be nice to be able to have something durable and reliable such that if I accidentally drop it, it's not going to be a big deal. I don't care for anything else at the moment; facebook, angry birds, and all of that good stuff don't really interest me. I have no idea where to begin, between iphone, android, samsung or blackberry. Help me get started. thanks PS. I'm really wanting this so I can bike around in a big city and not get horribly lost. my crappy garmin is super slow, and doesn't have updating capability. So in other words, small, durable, inexpensive plan, with GPS.

maybe I just never had good coffee, but the ones I've had taste bitter. And when they cool down, they taste even worse. also, I heard that coffee can give your body the illusion that you're awake, when you really aren't that awake.

What made you start drinking coffee, and what would you do if someone takes away your coffee? I managed through college without coffee, because I refused to drink it. Not only did I think it was unhealthy, I thought that if I did start drinking it, I would develop a crutch, and be even more disorganized and tired, which could be dangerous too. I don't want to be one of those people who become dependent. Plus, it tastes like shit to me, even with sugar dumped into it. I'm just curious about others' opinions on this.

I think a road bike is best for your speedy commutes. Good hybrids are actually pretty expensive, and it's harder to find one.

Would really like more feedback if possible. To update, my former mentor got moved to a different area. In short, if I leave, it's going to be a big pain in the ass for them to fill in the gap. And with that, I have good resason to believe my current boss might not want to write me a very good letter. It's not that I won't try. I would really like to hear some stories.

every time I see your name, I see AIDS

can't go wrong with a fixie with flipflop hub. You can get a nice one for $200. They don't have shifters, so they're easier to maintain. I hate cleaning my bike's drive train. With a single speed, you only have to do 1 gear, and you're done. So eigen, I take it you're out of grad school? lol. It throws me off, because your application status says already attending. what places have you toured? But for I agree that the best option for someone starting out is to buy used from craigslist, if you live in a city that has a decent market that is. I think a lot of times, the bike will need to be restored (eg new cables, brake pads, lubrications required) just because the bike's probably been sitting in the garage for god knows how long. A lot of vintage frames tend to be over priced though. The owners like to advertise them as "extremely rare" when in fact it's just some generic bike from the 70s that nobody knows about. I'm not very familiar with mountain bikes tough. But if your budget is $500 and above, you can get a pretty decent entry level bike. The good thing about that is you get to skip friction shifters and start out with index shifting, which is a lot nicer, even though it's harder to setup. also, 9 times out of 10, it's cheaper to buy a whole bike with the components that you want, as opposed to buying everything separately. A shimano 105 (which is a mid range shimano component) shifting setup alone will cost you $300 on ebay, and that's excluding the crankset, cassette and brakes. A full groupset will cost you at least $500... so yea, if you want a nice bike, buy a nice bike. Don't go with the upgrade route unless you got money to blow. also, a $500 bike will get you a lighter frame, better wheels, and more responsive brakes. In my opinion, it's the perfect sweet spot between a $100 vintage, and a $4000 s-works, in terms of 80% of long term consumer needs. and when I say $500, I mean $500 online. Those sales come straight from the factory, whereas local bike shops have to retail closer to the MSRP in order to make a profit. It's still a good idea to buy stuff from them, so they'll value you as their customer, and be a little nicer to you. my 2 cents. as you can see, I like to ramble on about bikes, because I have nothing better to do.

yea... theft. I never leave my bike outside overnight. If I lived in a bigger city, I wouldn't even leave it outside, period. nice profile pic

interesting. so what's wrong with titanium if comfort is the issue? Also, if shock absorption is your main concern, then it's really a matter of how the frame is built. There are good reasons why aluminum and carbon frames tend to have much thicker walls. Steel is dense, and while it's inherently the most shock absorbing, but that would only be true if if the aluminum frame were built in the exact same shape as the steel frame, in which case the bike would feel like a noodle and give out completely. Besides, I see more of a change when I switch between 23 and 25 tires verses going from aluminum to steel. Also, you can't really change the stem length on a vintage, which is kind of important if you're trying to get a fit done. As for campy stuff. I don't know about it, never used it, and probably never will. how long have you been riding?

yea well I tried negotiating with this person on the phone about extra fees. she's pretty firm on the 1 pet policy, which makes no sense to me. If anything, two cats is better than one, because they have each other to play with. A lonely cat will shred the curtains trying to climb to the ceiling. But I agree with you that it depends on who the landlord is, and your relationship with him/her. My previous cat was an adopted stray, and was stubborn as hell. These two kittens are 2 months old, and they learned pretty fast not to step on my keyboard, whcih is a good sign. I wonder how I'm going to train them to hide when the front door unlocks. Maybe I'll come home dressed in a unitard or something, and scare the living crap out of them every day.

oh yea? which category do they race in? I'm sure there are people out there that does that. If I weren't so affected by peer pressure, or let my equipment get in the way of my state of mind, I would race with a beater too, especially in cat 5, where crashes are most likely. I still think instead of upgrading an vintage frame, it makes more sense to just get a new bike if one's planning to get more serious. You can try to get previous generation components like shifters and whatnot, but those are either closeouts or used items. There's also compatibility issues. I tried to upgrade my 1982 fuji del rey (a very reputable bike). I ended up blowing $500 in upgrades in everything except the crankset, FD, and the bike stem. The tektro brakes didn't even fit, and I had to put a drill bit to the fork. I didn't dare touch the rear brake bridge. In the end, I still ended up with a 26 lb bike, when I could have bought a really nice aluminum bike with 105 for about $600 online. Also, the frame is a 58 cm, just like my other one, but the top tube is about 2 cm shorter than modern bike designs. Again, it'll be good for commuting. But I feel crammed in the drops when I'm out riding. Worrying about crashing is about the only reason I can think of why you might want to stick with vintage.

where are you? don't tell me, the Bay area? I want to live in SF so bad. The cycling culture there is insane. There are races everywhere. The weather/landscape is beautiful. I've had 3-4 vintage frames. I broke one of them because I backed into it with my car, and that one quickly turned into a crappy donor bike. I bought another one of those 60s 26ers for my mom for like $20, restored it, but she never rides it :/ I still have the other two, about sell one of them. IMO, vintage frames are the best option for college students. But it's pretty frustrating to have to change gears on a tube shifter when your intention is to go fast. Also, those old steel frames tend to be in more upright positions, which is perfect for commuting. Bikes nowadays are made to be "racy" to mimic the pros. Everyone wants to look pro, it's sad.

There's gotta be cyclists here. It saves gas, and there's no insurance. I got into plain and simple commuting in college, because I wanted to save money on gas, and get some exercise. Now, it's become my most expensive hobby. It sucks because where I live, there's no cyclists at all, and I have to drive 30 miles to get into group rides. I just got a new carbon bike, and plan on doing some races, and see where I'll end up a year from now, when I'll hopefully move to a grad school. I want to get to cat 3 while I'm still single and free, if I can. So anybody else on here like bicycles?

I have two cats. The apartment I want to sign only allows 1 pet, which is stupid because it encompasses dogs, cats, all the way down to frogs. I'm contemplating on training my cats to hide whenever someone walks in the front door, so I don't get busted or worse, evicted. I'd have to toilet train them too... Any ideas? I know I'm violating the contract if I do this, but shit. I don't care.

I think a good question is how much weight a first author carries as opposed to second. (I'm guessing this is what the OP was asking).... I got a couple of 2nd authorships for putting in a lot of hours, and producing good results. I wrote part of the experimental section, which has been drastically revised since then. And I didn't do any of the background research required for the intro, and I didn't do any data analysis required for the results/discussion. That's a lot of work right there... So to be a first author would be pretty impressive, depending on the project. On a side note, I hope I'm still 2nd author. Those papers were supposed to have been published in like Febuary. But I think they're still dealing with the patents right now. I just hope they'll hurry the f* up, so I can get my name on a high IF journal before this December.