sey085

Although I received a bike for my fourth birthday, I don't think that I really got the training wheels off of it until I was at least six, or maybe even seven. After school, my best friend, Ralph, and I would often bike down to the baseball fields, or the dirt bike track, or Burger King, but we never really went further than about a mile or so. Most of this was due to San Diego's unique geography: it is virtually impossible to travel more than a mile from my house without hitting a canyon. And, although I enjoyed riding my bike to school in 5th and 6th grade (not more than a mile), I had to be driven to Junior High School, as it was roughly five miles, two freeways, and two or three serious canyons away. Thus, I pretty much gave up on bike riding when I was about 11. I sort of picked it up again at Stanford, as biking in to school saved me from having to buy a parking permit once I lived off-campus, but again, I never really biked more than maybe two or three miles at any ...

I got an email today from Andy, who, as noted before, came for a brief visit last week. I -- of course -- took him to the Collection de l'Art Brut , which -- of course -- blew his mind. He sent me this picture, which adequately captures what I find to be the single scariest thing I have ever witnessed in a museum anywhere. Nowhere else have I seen a painting that so clearly asks, nay, demands that the viewer lean just a little bit more over the precarious and quickly eroding cliff that marks the edge of sanity. Fig. 1: This is only one in a series. A huge, horrifying, fascinating series. Alas, prints of this were not available in the gift shop, so I'll have to come up with some other decoration for that long entrance hallway in my new apartment.

Well, it only took two and a half months, but I have finally moved into a quasi-permanent apartment. With a little help from Serge and his car, and a few fully-encumbered hikes across town, I have cast off my tiny, ugly, smelly studio for a much larger, less ugly, and significantly better smelling apartment on the other side of Lausanne. Last night was my first night in the new apartment, so I am still getting to know the place, but I figured I ought to post something before people start boycotting my blog in protest. First, the good: The apartment nice, clean, and spacious. The bathroom is clean, has a full shower, and nice fixtures. The kitchen has a full-sized oven, four-burner stove, and plenty of cabinets. The bedroom is large, has it's own radiator, and has a wooden floor. The building looks really high-class on the inside and looks well-maintained. I have a cellar the size of a basketball court. Unfortunately, there's no electricity, so I can't turn it into a seco...

Hola, amigos. I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I have been up to mon cou lately and have not had a lot of free time. OK, a lot of this "busy-ness" business was more of the leisure variety, but with the apartment change and all, it really wasn't until tonight that I've had any free time since my last entry. So, time to catch you up to date! As mentioned earlier, Mike P (of the San Diego P's) is in Stuttgart for a few weeks. As he had already made some plans with work-type people for the following weeks, last weekend was the only free weekend he had to come visit Switzerland. Even though I was somewhat drained (physically as well as financially) by my visit to Stuttgart the previous weekend, I knew that it was a moral imperative to dig deep (p. as well as f.), get on a train, and meet him in Zurich. As I was making these plans though, I was contacted my Dr. Loren Swenson of Grenoble who informed me that he was free this weekend and w...

Two important pieces of news this morning. First, this news item . If you read the whole thing, you will come across some very important facts. Namely, Bridget Marquardt and Hugh Heffner's relationship "may also be in flux" and that "Marquardt is in Europe filming the new Travel Channel series 'Bridget's Beaches.'" So, Bridget is on the rocks with Heff and she's currently in Europe ... the stars are aligning. Oh, and in other news, I GOT AN APARTMENT! Can I get a WOOT WOOT! Although I haven't signed any papers yet, I got a call this morning from an Agency informing me that I had been chosen to receive the lovely 2 pièces apartment at Avenue de France 28 . The apartment is newly renovated with a nice kitchen, wood floors, and all the fixins. The move-in date is Oct 15, so I will be changing in a hurry. Now, of course, I need to put out an ad to find someone to take over my current apartment, or I'm on the hook for an additional mon...

Last Friday, I found out that Mike P (San Diego's Mike P, not to be confused with Stanford's Mike P) was in Stuttgart, Germany for business for a few weeks. Fortunately for all those involved, Stuttgart is celebrating Cannstatter Wasen right now -- sort of a smaller scale Oktoberfest. As it is but a short 5 hour train ride from Lausanne to Stuttgart (Lausanne to Bern, Bern to Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe to Stuttgart), I woke my butt up early Saturday morning and caught the train to Stuttgart, and met Mike at the station around 1 pm on Saturday. After dumping my bag at his hotel, we wisely left the car and took the subway to the party. The Cannstatter Wasen , or Volksfest, is allegedly more of a fair than a drinking festival (or so claims Wikipedia). Certainly, there are ferris wheels, attractions, carnival food, and games, but the big draw is obviously the drinking tents. If Wikipedia is to be believed, there are seven of these at the fair and each holds around a couple thousand...