Laminar Flow

The suspense builds. I'm in Seattle, Washington on a trip with my sister. I've been tense about this moment for weeks. What is going to happen? Will I fail or succeed? ... I passed! I passed my circuits class!

Leave it to Colorado School of Mines to leave me celebrating a D.

At any rate, life is in constant flux, and I like it. I get to fly planes, hang out with high schoolers (cooler than you are thinking), play the procrastination game with classes, live with cool guys in a cool town, mountain bike/bmx at will, and have an all around peachy life.

Earlier this past semester I hit a local low. I fully realized how badly I do not wish to be an engineer for a living. Attending engineering school with the goal of not being an engineer isn't awesome. My quarter-life-crisis left me thinking about what to do. What have I always dreamed of?

"Turn right, dodge those clouds!" belches Dan, my flight instructor. I'm 2,000 feet above the ground flying a plane. The radio begins squaking, "Weather is quickly diminishing, visual flight rules are NOT reccommended." I'm supposed to be learning emergency procedures, lesson 9 of my private pilot training. Instead, we're avoiding various walls and spots of clouds and snow. After aborting and heading home, the air changed to a full blown cloud minutes behind us. We come in, and I get to land in a stiff crosswind, using a "slip" to land the plane straight down the runway, while negating the crosswind factor. This is living.

My dream has always been to be a pilot. It is the only thing I've wanted to do my entire life. So I'm doing it.

Eventually I will earn: private, instrument, multi-engine, complex, single engine commercial, multi engine commercial, flight instructor, and instrument flight instructor.

I do not want to be an airline pilot. I have a hugely increasing interest in bush piloting. Bush piloting in terms of being a relief/missions pilot somewhere people need help more than I do. Africa is riddled by AIDS, poverty, war. South America has some of the same holes in it's boat. People are the only thing I don't tired of, so maybe I could love flying to love people.

Life

The Cobra is up and running! I did a fair amount of driving today, and no problems whatsoever! I warned everyone religiously to beware the side pipes, for they burn badly. Well, waddya know, someone got it. Me. Calf: Big Burn.

The car gets quite a bit of attention. A little girl started jumping and screaming when she saw me coming, and her mum followed with two thumbs up. A kid jumped off his bike and played dead in the middle of the road, wanting a ride.

It's a wierd letdown of a high, getting the car running. Driving the car is great. However, it's a wierd realization that I spent hundreds, hundreds of hours building an object that fits is a 6X12 box.

College:

Summer is a time to get refreshed. It's a time to roll my "school ball" to the top of the hill so I can roll back down. My school ball got really heavy. It didn't make it up the hill.

I'm also having severe doubts about being an engineer. Fact: I could be an amazing engineer. Fact: Engineering is not my dream.

What's been my dream my entire life? Flying. I'm gonna check out Rocky Mountain College's Aviation program that comes with it's very own Liberal Arts degree.

Fact is, I have no clue what I really want to do for a living. I am happier than ever with life, but I'm freaking over the "life details."

I'm seeing that to be happy and awesome I do not have to:

risk my life witnessing to tribes in South America
be the best mountain biker this side of Saudi Arabia
be a missionary
be a preacher
be absolutely everyone's friend
keep absolutely everyone happy
care about things not worth caring
be a stunt pilot
be an adrenaline junkie
break my collar bone a second time
do the world's sickest whip of all time on a motorcycle
land an esteemed, high paying job.

I want to enjoy life now, not attack it. Life isn't earning a PhD, making money, or nabbing the hottest lady in the bar. People drive their way through life, thinking that success and power is their dream. Pull back the throttle and love something.

I remember being a kid, loving with everything. My dog, legos, blowing stuff up, birthdays, the time of day school got out, my bike. Remember how that felt? Wasn't it awesome, that huge chestfull of excitement? If you could fall in love with Life like a little kid with his dog...forever, wouldn't you want to?

I look at my Mom. She gets waken up sometimes at 4:30 by her own excitement to go garden. She gets tens of phone calls from friends saying "hi" every day. She smiles for no good reason. I joke that if she got thrown in jail, she would wake up early to polish her fake plant before she started singing to her cell mates. She definitely loves life.

There's another thing she's crazy about: God. She depends on God as if her life depends on it. She is ecstatic for God, and has been since she was 16. How many things can you be rediculously excited about for almost 40 years? She definitely loves God.

I see that my Mom loves life. She loves God. And I am now seeing that there is a connection. And I'm learning through trial and error that it is The connection.

Cobra Dos

Top: Here's the engine all ready to go, black to match the engine compartment

Bottom: Here's all the aluminum I built last summer, with polished stainless button head screws. Brakes are in!

Cobra

I've been asked to post some info on the cobra!

-347 stroker
-forged crank, forged h-beam rods, forged pistons
-engine was originally built to drag race on nitrous, but owner was scared before nitrous
-Comp cams valvetrain with "streetable but lopey" cam grind
-Ported aluminum trick flow heads
-Edelbrock aluminum intake (victor jr?)
-Race Demon carb (something like 575 cfm, with choke)
-MSD 6AL igniton unit with rev limit, MSD coil and new plug wires
-Ford C4 automatic transmission with high stall converter
-NOS Top shot nitrous system 75-150hp (going in after engine has 600 miles)
-Ford 9" rearend with new Detroit Locker differential
-Mustang II suspension setup
-4 wheel disc brakes
-Adjustable rear trailing arms (set ride height)
-Brand new paint with 2006 Audi "brilliant red", white stripes
-American Racing Torq Thrust II rims, 17x8, front and rear
-Goodyear Eagle F1 supercar tires, 245/45ZR17 (tires that come on Ford GT, Corvette Z06)
-Autometer Phantom guages, red bulbs
-Fenderwells, footboxes, firewall are all custom aluminum powdercoated black
-Ceramic coated exhaust
-Moto-Lita wood steering wheel
-Custom black leather interior going in soon
-Custom wiring. Every connection is crimped, soldered, and heat shrinked
-Headlights and fans are run off of dual relays.

The car's about three weeks from completion, and will have the interior done when the weather turns cold. New this past weekend: it runs, has brakes, and steers! The engine will have "Cobra" style valve covers and air cleaner powdercoated red to match the car.

All that is man

Exciting moment!

As you probably don't know, the Cobra is three to four weeks from roaring. This in itself is good. Here's where it gets very good. I just ordered (consider it my "good job" present to myself) a Nitrous Oxide system for the car. This will offer an adjustable power gain of 75 to 150 horsepower.

Most street cars weigh in around 3,400 pounds. The Cobra weighs in at 2,300 pounds.

The engine in its current trim makes about 350 horsepower. + Nitrous = 500 horsepower.

A brand new, sporty, Mustang GT makes 300 horsepower at the engine (power is lost getting it to the wheels through friction. Those cobra numbers are at the wheels.

A new Mustang GT should push itself through 1/4 of a mile in around 14 seconds. A new Dodge Viper will do that in 12.2 seconds

The cobra might do it in 11-12 seconds.

Whoa!

I might be in Indonesia next week!

I've been invited to be an intern for World Vision (Christian NPO serving third world countries, mainly kids), helping with their Tsunami effort! Four to Six weeks!

Bandeh Aceh, here I come!

up n' out

I was racing motocross sunday in sterling when I woke up in the middle of the track. "whaa?" I thought. Ears ringing, everything black, not able to breathe.... I think I crashed.

EMT- how you doing?
Me- uhhhhhgh.
EMT- you alright?
Me- uuugh. Shoulder.
EMT- Collar bone.

At any rate, I snapped my collar bone in two spots, with an inch section in the middle standing vertically. That landed me in surgery, and I've got sweet plate holding my shoulder together.

-Positive points to the weekend:
-The motorcycle is okay
-When I fainted in the "EMT cart," I kicked the EMT in the junk.
-Morphine makes anything possible
-The service in a hospital is great. Want a cup of ice at 3:00 in the morning? No problem.
-I met a life goal: Break a bone before 21 years old
-Percoset
-Greg bought me everlasting gobstoppers
-The titanium plate keeps everything together initially, so I can do most anything I want... just limited by pain
-Impressing all the hot nurses with my sweet x-rays and bowstaff skills


Anyways, all in all, it wasn't terrible. I've made it 20 years without spending a night in a hospital bed, so I guess it was time. I've been telling Greg and Hunter that "I expect one of to get jacked up this summer racing." All the while knowing full well that it would not be me.

Check it out

-ready to race

Change?

I'm touring the Architecture department at CU Boulder tuesday! Schweet!

Where?

Where'd my passion go?


If you knew me my senior year of high school, you know who I'm talking about. I stole a girl's backpack and returned it full of flowers. I didn't want to date her, it seemed like it would make her day. I drove my car 160 to feel the road hurling at me, as if to duplicate the feeling of life. Mr. Olson yelled at me daily because I was so empassioned, i couldn't stop talking for 50 minutes. I decided I wanted to play baseball for the first time in HS. I decided I wanted to start as well. I made up my mind, took batting practice at 6:00 a.m. every morning and became the lead off batter for the team, as well as the only senior to make all-conference. I slept about five hours a night in order to do more fun projects. I was in such a stupor, I couldn't drive without dozing within a half hour. Confidence was oozing out my ears. Life was a chance to love something, and a bad day was only a building block.


Here I sit lately, enjoying life. Nothing more. I cling to the fact that I'm a Young Life leader and going to a reputable college, siliently pleading for someone to say "that's good, Lance." I do not wake up thinking how to make someone's day, I'm looking for excuses to enjoy mine.


Experiencing that burning, white hot desire for life is something amazing. I've distinctly seen two people, absolutely, completely, insanely in love with life. My Mom and Me. I've also seen, first-hand, what causes this. I, as my Mom has always been, was insanely in love with Jesus. He was real, and just kinda chilled with me through the day.


I just now put this together. There's a simple difference, for me, between just completing the day... and waking up at 7 o'clock with a flaming want for life. Read on.


They say you can't explain being in love. You just "know it." I've experienced it. I was in love with Jesus. This is not singing church hymns in the right octave. It's not putting extra effort into tying your tie on Sunday. It's not praying before every meal. It is not something you give 10% of your paycheck to. It just happens, and you wake up completely swept away, along for the ride.


I started racing motocross recently. I like the danger, the adrenaline, the mystery. Hurling yourself off a 100 foot jump at 50 miles per hour is something everyone should experience. And you can. Everything, for that couple seconds just... makes sense. I call it a "terrifying peace." Now. Imagine that feeling day-in, day-out. Morning and night, everything just... makes sense.


I've been making a living being nice, passing classes, and having occaisonal bouts of spunkiness. I'm taking back my life, and it will be free from the addiction of uncertainty, the addiction of procrastination, the addiction of mediocreness.


The thought of who I had become, and the fact that I'm taking it back wells up in me like Thanksgiving dinner. It's so good I'm gonna burst. I know Who has the key to happiness, and i'm taking it back, damnit.