Two-wheeling

In case you weren't aware, next week is National Bike to Work Week, May 17 - 21 with Friday being official Bike to Work Day! Lots of cities are doing exciting things so you should check out what's going on around you. Bicycling to work offers great benefits to individual health, and it can also benefit your local environment (Coe, 2010). The League of American Bicyclists has several resources to use during the week!

However, I do not support or endorse the Critical Mass organization and their actions.  Critical Mass tends to attack car drivers and instead of "Sharing the Road," they want to take over the road.

References
Coe, E.E. and Chancellor, H.C. (2010). Exploring motives, benefits, constraints, and needs of bicycle commuters. The Journal of Park and Recreation Administration. In submission.

Bloomington, IN

It pained me to leave my Washington, DC network on Facebook as I headed west on I-70 in 2007.  It took me months after to even change my "Current City" status to Bloomington.  The girl who took me to look at apartments said I'd love this place, it was the, and I quote her directly, "cultural mecca of Indiana."  Let's reinforce that the clarifier in that statement is most important, "of Indiana."  Can you tell I am a skeptic?

Okay, was a skeptic.  Despite my apathy, I have actually come to love my Midwestern town, and if you have to live in Indiana, this is definitely where you should be.  The video below was created by a local church to show new members of the community a little bit about their new home.  Watch it - especially my friends who have yet to visit. This is all part of my ploy to convince you that Bloomington needs to be your next vacation destination!

Yikes!

Ummmm, on behalf of the world, I would like to say thank you to the parents of this entitled "intern."

From Gawker.com

The (Potential) Intern From Hell

Every season, at every company, there has to be that one terrible intern. Usually they just fall asleep at work, or show up drunk. Allow us to introduce you to one intern candidate who sounds much, much worse.

A tipster sent us these emails from a real intern applicant at a company in New York. After the company didn't get back to him after one full day, the would-be intern sent them this reminder note:

The (Potential) Intern From Hell

Goodness! The company wrote back to the applicant saying that the internships had already been filled, and by the way, the note he sent was rude. This was his response:

The (Potential) Intern From Hell

Interns: Always teaching.

Little 500

Most current and past students of Indiana University will tell you the love Little 500 - "The World's Greatest College Weekend," but I doubt they could tell you anything about the actual bicycle race which takes place during the weekend.  I'm not sure where the tradition came from to turn the weekend into a party weekend, but year after year, the population of Bloomington probably triples from all the people who come to take part in the festivities, mostly to attend outrageous fraternity parties where concerts headlining artists like Snoop Dogg, Luda, and DMX take place.

I hadn't really heard of Little 5 until I was at the MS150 in Texas in 2004, and at the fairgrounds, we watched "Breaking Away," a movie from the late '70s about the bicycle race and how the Bloomington townies - Cutters, as they are called, decide to form a team and win the race.  I thought the movie was pretty cool, so when I got to Bloomington in 2007, I decided to find out a way to be involved.  I found a random email address on the IU Student foundation website (hosts and coordinators of the race), and asked to be a volunteer.  I didn't hear anything until about a week before the race, and then I got an official email, thanking me for volunteering and that I needed to be at the women's race early on Friday to be briefed on my role as a pit judge.  I had no clue what pit judge even meant.  

Well, it turned out to be quite the role.  I was assigned 3 teams to judge and I watched from the infield, basically just making sure they make proper exchanges, communicate any info during the race to the coach, nothing too bad.  The best part is that judges get to wear a headset and hear everything that the race directors are talking about, and the commentary is way better than what is being said on the PA to the audience.  

2010 was my 3rd race to volunteer. My dear sweet friend, Sarah, came out for her second time, and we had such a great time on the infield with the insider's point-of-view.  Since the field is predominantly Greek and I'm not affiliated with a Greek organization at IU, I cheer for the Independent teams.  Namely, the Cutters.  Not because they always win, but because my first experience with L5 was the movie.  The Cutters don't have a women's team, so I cheered for my residence hall, Teter.  Both Teter and the Cutters have a long history of winning teams.  Because they are independents, they have the ability to recruit all sorts of riders, hold try-outs, and equip themselves with the best teams.  The Teter women are lead by junior Caitlin Van Kooten.  Caitlin placed first at individual time trials (ITTs).  She's awesome.  She led her team to victory on Friday with such ease.  They rode smart, stayed out of the crashes (two really bad ones, 4 total broken collar bones), and it was a refreshing victory after coming in second to Pi Phi last year.  

I love the women's race.  It gets me pumped up for the men's race.  The women are great, but the competition doesn't exist the same for them as it does the men.  The men's race is a totally different playing field, there's not much fear, and they ride hard and fast.  In the final laps there were still 6 teams on the final lap.  Junior Eric Young rode for the Cutter's and by the end he turned it on.  Their big threat in the end were the Delts, who had a crash going into the final lap on a bad exchange.  Young took the lead by about half a lap.  It was a great finish and overall a good race, despite bad weather.  

Here's a little taste of it, the video is from 2008, but it's a really good one:

An Evening with Martin Sheen

Brian landed free tickets for the Ralph L. Collins lectures series at the IU Auditorium this spring, so last night we were entertained by Martin Sheen. He talked about his time on West Wing (did you know 75% of Americans say they would vote for him/Josiah Bartlett?), other aspects of his acting career, personal life, and his vocation as an activist.  He put in a big push for the San Carlos Foundation, an organization which places professionals in developing countries to provide communities and their people with resources for education in order to create jobs and aid in decreasing poverty.


My only critique is that he called us the University of Indiana...

'An Evening with Martin Sheen' this year's free Ralph L. Collins Memorial Lecture Award-winning actor, social activist and humanitarian Martin Sheen will appear at 7:30 p.m. April 19 at Indiana University Auditorium. Sheen will present the IU Department of Theatre and Drama's 2010 Ralph L. Collins Memorial Lecture.  Full Story

Plug for my roommate

After so much hard work, my college roommate is now a Licensed Professional Counselor Intern.  She is working on marketing to clients and putting together counseling groups.  If you're from the Dallas area or know anyone there, please refer them to Stephanie.  Visit www.haraburda.com or check out her website here! Yeah Steph!

Spring Break Recap - Post 4 of 4

Our decision to cut out from the original route ended up being one of our best decisions.  We decided to explore a new part of the park we hadn't seen before, Cades Cove.  We took the main road all the way through the park, a pretty, but long drive.  We set up camp at the campground there and had a delicious jambalaya dinner.

The next morning, we wanted to hike up to Rainbow Falls but needed to stop at the ranger station to find out where to park and if the trails and roads were open.  One question was answered quickly.  As we headed to the main station, we had to detour around the northern part of the Park.  Upon arriving at the station, we learned that there had been a pretty major rockslide as a result of all the snow and rain.  The rockslide occurred sometime just after we drove through to Cades Cove.  Phew we weren't a little later!  Anyway, due to the road closures we couldn't get to Rainbow Falls but a helpful ranger sent us back over to Cades Cove to climb the Rich Mountain Trail Loop which offers spectacular views of the Cove.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  It was warm and completely clear and the sun finally made us feel officially dry.  The total loop was about 8.5 miles and we got see some deer and the views were great.  Toward the end of the hike, we explored a late-19th century cabin which was pretty neat. 

Pictures below are our beautiful views and last days in the Park.  If I continue to stay in Indiana, I'm hoping to make several more trips to the Smokies.