The other day, my roommate and I went for a bike ride in Lester Park (one of the many wonderful parks in the Duluth area).  It was my first time ever biking on an off-road trail like that, and even though it kicked my butt, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and look forward to doing other such excursions again!

It’s a 95 Trek 970 Mountain Bike

• Older shimano (XTR and Deore) components
• RockShox Quadra21 shock in the front
• Specialized Strong Arm cranks
• Specialized seat
• new Scott grips
• ZX welded aluminum frame thats guaranteed for the life of the bike

(I have no clue what any of the above really means, other than it’s some name brand stuff)

I’m hoping that biking the mile to work and back every day will help me get rid of my gut, and help me lose a bit of weight.  I’m also going to cut back on certain foods/drinks, try to eat more healthy, and drink more water.

It’s been so cold out I haven’t had time to work on my cars lately.  This is a sad thing because my SPG needs some more attention, and my NG900 wants more power.  I ordered myself a birthday present for my NG900, an Autometer Sportcomp II boost gauge (30hg/30psi) so I can tell how much I’m boosting with the turbo.  The OEM boost gauge doesn’t have actual PSI values.  I’m also tempted to get a MBC+A (Manual Boost Controller + Anticipator) so I can crank the boost up, but I’ll only max out at 15psi with my current ECU.   Most likely I’ll set aside a little bit each paycheck for the car, and then in April/May go straight for a Stage3 Nordic Tune.

I can’t wait for the weekend, then I can take my mind briefly off work and relax.  I’ll probably finish my book this weekend and start another one.

To talk about how random the stuff we do, Jacob put in the “School of Rock” DVD just to watch the last scene where the kids play at the battle of the bands.  Steve thinks that if he could just play drums he could do it all.

Meanwhile, here I sit with my laptop, playing around with photobooth and my isight camera taking before and after pics of my haircut. (no i’m not narcissistic).

Ok, so I’m bored on a Wednesday night and have nothing to do.  I need a garage so I can work on my car.

Well I was shocked to find out that it had me nailed down almost to a T!  The test said that I am ENTP “Extroverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving”.  Here is what it has to say about people with an ENTP rating:

http://typelogic.com/entp.html

Profile: ENTP
Revision: 3.0
Date of Revision: 26 Feb 2005
“Clever” is the word that perhaps describes ENTPs best. The professor who juggles half a dozen ideas for research papers and grant proposals in his mind while giving a highly entertaining lecture on an abstruse subject is a classic example of the type. So is the stand-up comedian whose lampoons are not only funny, but incisively accurate.

ENTPs are usually verbally as well as cerebrally quick, and generally love to argue–both for its own sake, and to show off their often-impressive skills. They tend to have a perverse sense of humor as well, and enjoy playing devil’s advocate. They sometimes confuse, even inadvertently hurt, those who don’t understand or accept the concept of argument as a sport.

ENTPs are as innovative and ingenious at problem-solving as they are at verbal gymnastics; on occasion, however, they manage to outsmart themselves. This can take the form of getting found out at “sharp practice”–ENTPs have been known to cut corners without regard to the rules if it’s expedient — or simply in the collapse of an over-ambitious juggling act. Both at work and at home, ENTPs are very fond of “toys”–physical or intellectual, the more sophisticated the better. They tend to tire of these quickly, however, and move on to new ones.

ENTPs are basically optimists, but in spite of this (perhaps because of it?), they tend to become extremely petulant about small setbacks and inconveniences. (Major setbacks they tend to regard as challenges, and tackle with determin- ation.) ENTPs have little patience with those they consider wrongheaded or unintelligent, and show little restraint in demonstrating this. However, they do tend to be extremely genial, if not charming, when not being harassed by life in general.

In terms of their relationships with others, ENTPs are capable of bonding very closely and, initially, suddenly, with their loved ones. Some appear to be deceptively offhand with their nearest and dearest; others are so demonstrative that they succeed in shocking co-workers who’ve only seen their professional side. ENTPs are also good at acquiring friends who are as clever and entertaining as they are. Aside from those two areas, ENTPs tend to be oblivious of the rest of humanity, except as an audience — good, bad, or potential.

Some Famous ENTPs:

Alexander the Great
Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart
Sir Walter Raleigh

Fictional:

Mercutio, from Romeo and Juliet
Horace Rumpole, from John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey series
Dorothy L. Sayers’s detective Lord Peter Wimsey

Take the test yourself, and see what you are!

So in my search for housing in Two Harbors, I have two options. One is to rent an apartment for anywhere from $500-700/mo (I need a 2 bedroom so I can have a place for Nathan). The other is to buy a house, which would leave me with a $500-700/mo mortgage payment. I’ve elected for the buy a house option, and will fall back on the renting option if I am unable to buy a house.

In my search for a house, I found the perfect house for me. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 story house, with large living room, formal dining room, and large kichen with in-kitchen dining area. It has an unfinished basement, but it’s a slab basement and is very large. The bedrooms are massive, and it could easily be turned into a 3 bedroom house. It also has a 2 car, oversized garage in the back, which would give me an excellent space to work on my cars.

Now the asking price for the house is $99,900, but it’s been on and off the market for a while. I also tried getting approved for a mortgage at both the local bank and the local credit union. Both said my credit was too poor. So now I am looking for other methods to finance getting this house.

Even if I can’t get this one, the search still continues!

I know people who really like the sound of German, and who learn it because it sounds neat when they speak it. Well I’ve come to the conclusion that swedish sounds just as good, but it’s not as harsh of a language. Plus the fact that I’m mostly Swedish in heritage gives me another reason to learn it.

So now I just need to find a place to learn swedish, and then I can use it as an excuse to travel to Sweden someday.

Now that I’ve been up in the Boundary Waters working on this forest fire incident, I’ve spent most of my computer time using my new MacBook, and I’m loving it. In what little spare time I’ve had, I’ve been finding more and more online resources for mac users, and getting little tools/programs to extend my mac with.

At this time, I am seriously considering making my MacBook my main computer, and turning my PC desktop into a much needed office server. Which is what it was made for (it is a Dell Poweredge 430SC, 2.8ghz P4 HT, 1.5gb ram), and especially considering that our current Windows Small Business Server is running on a Dual P3 550mhz.

My only complaints about this MacBook is 1) Needs More Ram. At only 1GB, I can barely multi-task. 2) It does heat up like a banshee out of hell. When left sitting on a flat surface with poor heat transfer, the bottom is almost too hot to touch. And 3) I haven’t had a chance to test this, but from what I’ve read, this model of the MacBook can only do mirror-image with an external monitor, and I really would like to make use of Dual Displays.

In any case, I am more than happy to live with this wonderful machine, until such a point comes that I can upgrade to a MacBook Pro. I have my eye on the 17″ model, perhaps I should put it on my Christmas wish list.

During the 3rd game (capture the flag), I was defending our flag.  I was hiding behind it up on a small ridge, shooting down through the trees at the opposing team as they were rushing for the flag.  One of them got a lucky shot and hit me in the face.  Everyone thought it was a Kodak moment, so I grabbed my phone and had some pics snapped.

The ball hit me right in the mouth area, and splattered on through my cheek.  I still have a faint paintball aftertaste.   It definately was a fun time tonight, I look forward to next week!

For the longest time, I’ve always told myself that I wouldn’t become a ‘ricer’ and mod out my car.  And to this day, I still tell myself that.  However, I can’t help but think about the performance mods I can do to my car.  I’ve been reading up on my car in some Saab forums, and there is quite a bit I can do to tune my engine better, get more horsepower, and more boost off the turbo.

As it sits, my car can do 130mph easily (book says it can do 143mph), I havent pushed her to her limits just yet.  And this is all with the stock 185hp engine.  I can get a nordic kit and upgrade the engine a bit and can get 270hp out of her.  Boy would that be sweet!

So for now, I promise that I will not degrade my car with a wing, or vinyl stickers, or a huge fart tip arse cannon.  Any modifications I do will be for performance.  The only thing I might consider for ‘looks’ is going with Viggen bumpers, or getting a Saab Body kit for it.  But that will come after the engine tune up.