Hit by a car

I keep getting asked to tell this story, so I figure I'll just blog it for posterity.

Friday night i was hanging out with my good friend Matt D. We were on our way home, riding down the Broadway bike path.

At Broadway and Euclid, i had the walk sign and there was a car stopped at the light. I entered the intersection when the car gunned it making a right hand turn, t-boning me. I flipped over the hood and landed on the other side of the car, watching it drive off. Immediately tonnes of slightly intoxicated college girls came to my rescue, but were a little helpless as far as identifying the car that hit me. I did a little self examination, and when i felt i was ok i got up and with a shoulder to lean on walked over and sat by the side of the road.

The police and the ambulance were there pretty quickly. They asked me a lot of questions at once, and it took some convincing to the paramedics that Yes, i was OK, and NO, i did not want to ride the ambulance. I didn't get a good look at my bike, the police took it in as "evidence" but i did see that the fork was in 3 distinct pieces, and I'm assuming both wheels are done for.

I caught a ride to the hospital, where i was in a bed between two drunken college girls. After my x-ray i opted to leave the emergency room and told the doc i could be found in the more peaceful waiting room.

The x-ray's showed no bad news, (my left knee was really swollen). I also when to a physical therapist who said my knee was bruised but in really good condition.

I'm glad I'm OK! And I'm really thankful for all the supportive calls and e-mails I've gotten. I'm especially appreciative of everybody who's offered to let me borrow a bike or help me fix my old one. My plan of action is to get my bike back from the 5-0 and see what Trek will do for me (they sounded hopeful that they might be able to do me some sort of favor). If the frame and components are salvageable, I'll start from there. If not, i might be in the market for a new bike.

Oh, and as far as the car that hit me goes: I didn't get a good look at it as i was flipping over the hood, but I do know that it was a sedan, and it was dark colored (Black, or maybe dark green or blue). Some at the scene thought it was a Volkswagen but based on the hood ordainment (the one part of the car i did get a glance at) I'm thinking it was more like a Dodge or a Pontiac. At any rate, if you see a car driving around boulder with a mike shaped dent in the hood, take a picture or write down the license plate #.

Peace.
mike

Un-intentional Community

A "hot topic" in modern-day Christianity is "Intentional Community." I'm not an expert on this whole I.C. idea, but I'll give you a rundown of what I know about it. I.C. is living together with the purpose of seeking a shared vision, also sharing responsibilities and resources. Christian I.C. is based on the latter portion of Acts 2:

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

There are also a lot of mainstream books on this idea of intentional community. One really good book is "irresistible revolution" by Shane Claiborne. Although not strictly about intentional community, Shane exhibits a great example of a working community. I'd highly' recommend the book.

With all that said, I'm all about Community. I think Bonhoeffer in "Life Together" and Merton in "No man is an Island" both do a fantastic job of going through scripture and showing how necessary it is for the Christian to live life with the support of a community, and if you don't like the idea of community you should grace yourself with these fantastic reads.

But this "Intentional Community" thing is, in my opinion, an extremely dangerous trend for Christians. Here's the bottom line:

Our Intention is not Community, our Intention is Christ. Once we start living selfless lives reflecting Christ's love the community can't help but follow. It can't help overflowing. But, if we shift our gaze from Christ to some ideal way we should be living, we've lost sight of the goal. We've substituted something we can do on our own for what Christ has already done for us. We're seeking an ideal over the Ideal.

I have been a part of fantastic communities both in Clemson and here in Boulder. I love my roommates, all solid christian men, and can go to them with any need. Spreading larger I have amazing friends, brothers and sisters, to lean on. Larger than that is my Church, which is a body of Christians whom I love each dearly. This fantastic network of support, this amazing community which I've fond myself flourishing in, its of no work of my hand. It was completely Un-intentional. A gift from Christ. For this gift, I could not be more grateful! Thanks be to God.

Would you try to build something with your hands with the assumption that you could do it better than Christ? Would you dare?

-mike

Riddle me this:

If McCain wins, he'll be the oldest president in U.S. History. Now, he might be in pretty good health now, but Old people have this bad habit of dying sometimes.

If McCain kick's the bucket, do we want a woman with 2 years of political experience governing a state about the same population as Charlotte or Memphis running our country?

Do we want a President who picks his running mate not by experience or what he/she can add to the party, but by the potential demographic of voters he (or she) can pick up?

Work?

Sorry i haven't been blogging much. I've been having a super fun time at work doing some really exciting stuff. The sad part is, i can't show you my exciting stuff until I publish it! (It's never been done before!). The reason I'm blogging today is because I did some rough new experiments which also promise to lead to a pretty sweet paper! I'm super stoaked, I love what I do (even if it makes me a geek). In case you haven't seen it, you should check out my advisors page with info about the lab i work at!

To offset my geekyness, I've been spending my free time doing a lot of biking and hiking. Even though its been hot here, there's just soo much to do! Since I last blogged I climbed another 14er (quandary), and the 3 prominate peaks of boulder (Green, Bear, and S. Boulder). I've also been spending a lot of time with konisha (My mtn bike).

Up and Comming: I'm headed to Mexico! My cousin Natalie called me up and needed an "adult" to go with her and her team doing a week trip with casas por cristo. I'll let you know how it went when I get back!

thats all i've got! peace and love!
-mike

The Physics and Art of Fluid Flow

So a lot of times people ask me what I do, and I tell them: "I am developing a new flow visualization system to study the mixing of two scalars in a fluid flow." That is usually followed with a blank look, and then: "Cool, why? What's that good for."

Usually in conversation I don't have a good answer, but I can tell you that understanding fluid physics and turbulent flows is REALLY important. Nobel Prize winner Richard Freeman stated "Turbulence is the most important unsolved problem of classical physics." But I don't think that's what drew me to studying fluid flows. I think my reasoning might be more similar to the reason that Leonardo da Vinci studied it... That is, its beautiful.

So, you can imagine my excitement when I came across this course offering at University of Colorado: The Physics and Art of Fluid Flow. I'd encourage you to go and look at some of the galleries, and maybe you too will enjoy the beauty of one of the most complicated and misunderstood physical problems we know of.

Peace.
Mike

Brother Graduated, Back in CO!

So my brother graduated. I'm super pumped for him, and hope his college experience is a good one. I'm back in Colorado and it feels good to be back in the cool, dry, mountain air, but man, i miss all the trees...

I had an interesting conversation about hope for our generation, and our future tonight which made me realize that I probably sound like a pessimist a lot of the time. I will say this, I have little hope in our generation, or the next, to make the world a better place. I have little hope in the good in mankind, because we are sinful and destructive beings. I have little motivation to share in the ambition of environmentalists, because ultimately the earth is going to get destroyed.

I have one hope, and that is Christ. That is where all my Optimism lies. I feel like my lack of hope in mankind isn't pessimism, its just biblically based truth. In all end times prophecy, when Christ comes again, the worlds morals will be in shambles, and the world will be quite literally falling apart: earthquakes, natural disasters, the whole lot. To place your hope in mankind is to place your hope in an idol. That idol is yourself, your kind.

I do want to say that I don't mean I don't think we shouldn't try. We're called to be stewards of the environment, to seek justice for widows and orphans. To be generous with our money and to spread the name of Christ. But that's just it, in the end He should be our Hope and the world's, Not ourselves.

that's all I've got to say about that.

WE did it!

So we biked the blue ridge parkway. I'll have pictures to come, but i don't think they can show how beautiful and fun the ride was. Absolutely a fantastic vacation. When i get some time, i might make a website about it in case anybody else out there ever wants to try it! We all averaged around 275 biking miles and roughly 90 driving miles. We had to skip about 90 miles due to bad weather and detours, but i still think i can officially check that off my bucket list.

Now I'm at home in springfield for a week with the fam. I've been sleeping and eating a lot, which is fantastic. My family is cool, and we've been enjoying nice weather here in Springfield. My mom and I went for a cruiser ride around town, my brother and I went to the driving range, and my dad and I played some awesome disc golf. I've also gotten to see my grandparents, who are cool.

Anyhow, thats it for now. I'll holler when there are some pictures up.
Peace.
mike