Mini Soda

Nee How Y'all. I have (of course) been slipping on the post front for a number of reasons:
1: I'm lazy
2: I've actually had some work to do
3: There really isn't a whole lot to report from the last few weeks.

So to make this easy on your eye-holes here's a short list of things that have happened over the last few weeks:

Uno: I rode my bike alot (again, of course). Spring here lasted for roughly two weeks and it has now been somewhere around 80 degrees since mid April. This means I've been riding around in a tshirt for over a month and now have a pretty sick (sick as in awesome) farmers tan going on on my arms. Also, it has become a normal thing for my weekend rides to go past a section of the great wall, something which I consider pretty F-ing rad. How often do you get to walk, ride, or drive past a world heritage monument? I get to do it every week.

Deux: I went to a city called Chengde a couple weeks ago. It wasn't anything too special, just another small Chinese city of 700,000. It used to be a summer get away for the emperors in the 1700's and has some parks and temples and stuff that we went and saw. It also has a giant rock standing on it's end on the edge of a cliff that honestly seems to defy physical and geological logic. There are pictures up on facebook and i'll throw them up on my picassa account soon. All in all though, it was nice pile into a van with 7 friends, drive 4 hours and get out of the city.

San:I started running

Vier: I found out I'll have a dog next year. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm real excited about this. My friend Megan (from St. Paul), whom I will be sharing an apartment come September was followed home by a puppy whom she decided to take to the vet and get checked out and cleaned up and junk, after which she decided she would find a new home for her. I quickly vetoed this idea and suggested she keep her for next year, something Megan had been hoping I would do, and so it was decided: we will have a third roomate in the fall. Her name is Q-Tip (as in "the Abstract got it goin on"). Here's a few pictures. Just try to not fall in love with that lazy eye.

Five: I bought a guitar. I'm pretty psyched to finally have a musical instrument to noodle around on in my apartment. My keyboard stays at school so I've been fiendin for some music whilst in my abode.

Roku: I've been getting all super geared up to come home. I know I touched on this last time, but now that the weather has turned into summer, it seems all I can think about is being home in MN for a couple months and doind al the things I like to do (eat, sleep, play music, see music, drink beer, ride bikes, travel, and more). I won't bother you any more with all that longful nonsense and instead I will direct you to a couple of podcasts. The first one which you can download here:
Made In China Vol. 11
is mostly inspired by things I want to listen to when I'm driving around the twin cities with the windows down this summer. It also begins with a little ode to the land that I hail from. So if you need something to get you in a more summerish mood, some tunes are only a few clicks away.
The second podcast, which you can download here:
Made In China Vol. 11 (The Chill Shit)
is something I put together with a similar idea as the first, but this one is more things I want to listen to with the windows down when I'm driving at night. It's also the first one I've put together that is ALL HIP HOP, so be forewarned. If you're not a hip hop fan, skip this one. That said, I'm pleased with how this one came together so give it a shot if you like music (plus it's free, so what do you have to lose?).

Last: This is awesome

That's all I can remember for the time being. As far as things coming up in the future, I'm gonna go see Ratatat next wednesday which WILL be awesome. It's been a while since I've been to a show (People Under That Stairs a few months ago) and I'm pretty excited to check these guys out. In Beijing no less. I also have another bike race next weekend (the 23rd). Who knows how that will go, but I plan on blowing up the field and claiming my first ever win in my second ever race (not really. There're some pretty fast guys around).

And I'm gonna finish up there and hope that this will kick start me into writing a bit more between now and when I get back to the home front.

-B