Between $500 and $4,000 each

12 Container house: http://www.architectureandhygiene.com/12conHouse/12con_main.html

This is kinda cool also - there is a vacant lot down the street from me. Oh...the possibilities.
http://www.m-house.org

Of course this one is not from America
http://www.containerarchitecture.co.nz/

I know there's more stuff out there.

December Weight Loss Plan

Well I'm undergoing an involuntary weight loss plan right now. All of a sudden, and I mean all of a sudden I just got extra sick. Chills, nausea and my body is now experiencing a whole host of related maladies. So the silver lining in this is that I get to lose some of the pounds I've packed on because I'm not eating anytime soon. Anyway, I'm going skiing this weekend which is going to be pretty rad.

My New Project

Christmas was great. I got to spend time with my family, eat too much, drink *way* too much and have some time to kill on the computer. Idle hands are truly the devil's playthings though. Check out this link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/49CC-SLANT-HEAD-MOTOR-BICYCLE-BIKE-GAS-ENGINE-KITS-KIT_W0QQitemZ380088332121QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item380088332121&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1309|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

Powerking:
http://stores.ebay.com/powerkingshop

I want one of these. I've got a bunch of old frames that I could outfit.

I'm still in South Carolina. It was 70F today. We had a fire outside, at night. Not one of us had a jacket on. I did ride my dad's hybrid around for a bit but not for long. Tomorrow is hopefully a day at the gun range. Shooting guns is kind of savage but totally fun.

I just lost my embedding virginity

Well, I just embedded a map to my blog. No longer is the concept of "embed" a total mystery to me. Mapmyride.com is a pretty cool application so I'll be happy to advertise for them. South Carolina was a bit less cold today albeit a bit more rainy.

Map My Ride Test

ATL

Went down to Atlanta today - visited CNN, saw some Olympic stuff, and went down to the underground mall. We got to see the anchors actually report the news on both CNN and Headline News. I know, I know, not majorly exciting but it was fun. The underground was cool, despite the fact that it was populated a lot of extra sketchy people. What possesses someone to tattoo a dollar sign on their face is beyond me. It was once the downtown but they built buildings over it for some reason. They left the street as it was - old school curbs, paving bricks for the street. I like stuff like this - abandoned/ruined places with a history a person can learn about. This place wasn't a ruin but it had a former life in the past so I guess I can put it in the abanonded category. On another note I've got some pictures of abandoned stuff in the Scituate reservoir area that I've got to do something with. There is a lot of abandoned stuff in there from before they flooded it. Downtown Atlanta itself was kind of eerie today - it has big buildings, wide streets, a functional subway/train system and absolutely no traffic. For such a big city there weren't that many people downtown. Maybe they were all at the Mall? The freeways around the ATL have God awful traffic - like the massive 40 mile traffic jam that we sat in on our way back up I85. the worst part of this jam was the back up of cars onto the interstate waiting to get in line for this huge mall. Atlanta is huge - lots of big two/three story condo/apt. buildings, airport sized one story factories and endless circular mazes of McMansions. Sorry guys, didn't see one bike but I still have hope. Maybe it was the weather today. The weather was nothing like the sunny subtropical south one would like to expect on their vacation. Today - it was 30F during the day - which is like arctic for down here. I can only imagine (well, I guess I could check online but I don't want to) what it is like in the northeast. Atlanta is a pretty cool city all in all. I don't know about riding bikes around it though...although the roads around here are really good. Tomorrow we are either going up to Asheville or just hanging around Greenville. If we do go to Asheville we are hiking up Sassafrass Mtn. which is the highest point in SC. No snow right now in the hills down here. I'm going to take my Dad's ancient old hybrid out for a few hours at some point. I love riding in the south - great roads with no potholes and as long as you're respectful people are usually courteous to you on the road, most of the time. About the hybrid no toe clips, no proper cycling clothing. Probably jeans and a sweatshirt for attire.

Snow Experiment

The National Weather Service says its going to snow on Friday. Here is an excerpt of the forecast:

SNOW IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP FROM WEST TO EAST BETWEEN 8 AM AND NOON
ON FRIDAY. THE SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BECOME HEAVY DURING THE
AFTERNOON...WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR SNOWFALL RATES OF 1 TO 2 INCHES
PER HOUR. THE FRIDAY EVENING RUSH HOUR MAY BE QUITE MESSY WITH HEAVY
SNOW STILL FALLING. THE SNOW SHOULD TAPER TO SNOW SHOWERS ACROSS THE
INTERIOR DURING THE EVENING HOURS...BUT THE STEADY SNOW WILL LIKELY
CONTINUE ALONG THE COAST WELL INTO THE NIGHT.

AT THIS TIME...IT APPEARS THAT THE HEAVIEST SNOW WILL FALL SOUTH OF
THE MASSACHUSETTS TURNPIKE AND PARTICULARLY ON THE SOUTH COAST. THE
POTENTIAL DOES EXIST FOR SOME LOCATIONS TO SEE UP TO A FOOT OF
SNOW...WITH THE HIGHEST PROBABILITY ALONG THE SOUTH COAST.

So...will this be correct or not?  Will I be cross country skiing on
Saturday or will it be a day to go on a long ride?
Regardless, I don't know of any study which has assessed the percentage of
times weather forecasters are correct when forecasting snow events.
More to follow...

Posting

I'm liking this posting frequently thing.
I've learned that riding long makes you weak as hell in the gym the day after - upper body and lower body. I guess that means I pushed myself. I just got my reflective vest (2.99 on Ebay). It was shipped from Hong Kong - complete with nifty Chinese stamps.

Any Given Sunday

Had a great ride today - I went out towards the reservoir where I unexpectedly met up w/ Aaron from Providence. In total we got 3 hours in and I'm totally psyched about this. I've really got to trim down - I'm up in the high 180s which is way too much. How did this happen? So I'm hungry now but not overly so, just a little bit. I actually feel really good right now - legs not overly sore, knees don't feel as if they are 100 years old. The girl that checked me out at Stop and Shop was sniffling and I could tell had a slight fever (unless she just smoked a big fatty blunt). I hope she didn't pass on her infection - that would totally suck. There's a bad one going around work.
Going to South Carolina for next weekend to see the remnants of my family which should be nice. I think I'm going to rent a bike and do a couple rides - in sneakers and with bike shorts under sweatpants of course. I'll have to rent a bike from somewhere b/c I'm not bringing mine on the plane. There is really, really good riding down there - smooth roads that go on forever and ever. I am not bringing any cold weather gear even though I know better and should because it gets cold there sometimes. I'm excited to go to Atlanta on the 21st. We're going to catch a pro hockey game. Apart from this, I'm going to hike Sassafras Mtn. which is SC's highest point.

Today was cold

I was a lazy ass today. I did nothing all day and I'm not going to feel guilty about it at all. I've also decided on going after my phD @ Northeastern when I'm done w/ PC. It should only take a couple of years after I'm done w/ what I'm doing now. Regardless, I guess coming to that decision was doing something. This means a few more years of being the world's cheapest biker, although I'm getting my road rig ready and equipped for next season. Anyway, I've got to get my cross bike ready so if (when) I wake up early I can go on a ride up to Lincoln Wds. (0900) but things don't look good in that department. I found out why my avg. spd was so low on the CX ride the other day - broken rear spoke and I've got to repair my extra tubular tire. Ditching the broken spoke wheel and putting on my tubular. Uncharted territory here - I've stitched one up w/ floss before and had it work but I'm not doing that to this one - taking out the core and putting in the sealant stuff should do the trick.
Today is the first day that my knees have not been extra painful. I had problems walking stairs all week - like walking up and down at an angle to minimize the awful shots of pain. This means running is out. Walking up stairs holding the handrail like I'm 80 is not something I look forward to. I've also got to lose some weight - way too heavy right now. I don't know how much I can lose, but if that scale at the YMCA is right I've got a lot to lose.
Leah and I are getting sushi tonight. I'm really hungry. I love sushi. Low fat and healthy.

The girls on the second floor

whom live beneath me are really, really going to hate me after I'm done riding the trainer. Maybe they shouldn't have parties that end "early" like 2AM.

Tyra

When I came home tonight I flipped on the TV. I did not look at it...I flipped it on only. I began to cook dinner. After a while I started to listen to it. There was this show on - called "Tyra." This was the stupidest shit I've seen in a while. Anyway, I hit the bikepath tonight with my crappy light. It went well. I TT'd up to a group of 3 guys who ended up being pretty strong. We went the whole way - which ended up being about 1.5 hours. It felt great to get a good ride in during the week. I'm really looking forward to next cycling season. Mike Sam, Wild Bill and I went on the first winter ride of the season on Sunday. Like it started to sleet when we started out - it got worse and worse as we got further but it was just sleet. The roads got slick when we were about an hour out. I dumped it on Mann School which was kinda fun actually - I've got a nice totally black bruise that doesn't really hurt. I guess I made the most awful sound when I went down which also was kind of gratifying. It poured down rain from Greenville all the way into town. Hands 100% numb. No feeling. Same with feet. Soaked through and through. Just a tip - do not ever wash your bike in the shower. It makes a hell of a mess.

Apart from this I need to reassess my disposition at work. I spent the week with my family, whom I almost never see and thus was able to relax. The past two days I've been too relaxed to deal with situations that I must deal with and therefore I have become comfortable. This will change tomorrow. It is impossible to do this job and try to keep it low stress - which is frustrating but whatever.

I'm starting a facebook page advocating locking Plaxico Burress up for at least the minimum. Tyra has left the TV hopefully forever and I put CNN on. Bloomberg says the minimum is 3.5 years. Even though I'm relatively liberal when it comes to violent crime I have 0 tolerance. Corrections creates jobs anyway and we are in a recession. Yeah, its a long time but don't have illegal firearms with you at the club. See, this type of shit is exactly what is wrong with America. Succeeding but still behaving as if you haven't. Lets see - I'm a professional athlete making millions of dollars a year and I'm going to bring a loaded illegal firearm into a nightclub (I'm sure his defense will be that he needs it for "protection"). Dude has no sense - what was he going to do with it? Show it off? Impress his friends and other lowlifes at the club? Act extra cool with your pistol. Dude plays in the NFL. The NFL and he's good. Who is he afraid of? Really, who is he afraid of. Think about it. Nor does the guy have any firearms training or experience because if he had, he would not have shot himself in the leg. Tips for Plaxico: 1. Outgrow nightclubs. Instead attend expensive fundraisers, political events, volunteer functions and black tie cocktail parties. 2. Do not go to places where you are likely to be forced to use a firearm to protect yourself. This is not Baghdad - it is the United States. If you want to go to a place where a lot of people carry guns then you should go to such a place and when (if) you return you can give the NFL a report on how well the people lived there. I guess not attending the club could be looked at as "not keeping it real." Guess what, you cease to be real once you make it to the NFL and make a shit-ton of money. Plaxico sucks. Michael Vick also sucks. Vick sucks worse though. Alright, I'm done with my mostly negative unpleasant blog post. But I feel better.