White people

Here is article #61 on a site all about white people and our funny cultural habits. Check it out, we are pretty funny people! http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com


#61 Bicycles
February 10, 2008 by clander

A good place to find white people on a Saturday is at a Bike Shop. Bike shops are almost entirely staffed and patronized by white people!

But not all white people love bicycles in the same way, there is much diversity. First up, we have the younger urban white folks who absolutely love their fixed gear bicycles. These are seen all over college towns, Silverlake in LA, Williamsburg in Brooklyn, Queen West in Toronto, and Victoria, British Columbia. Fixed gear bicycles meet a lot of requirements for white person acceptance. They can be made from older (i.e. vintage) bicycles, thus allowing the rider to have a unique bike that is unlikely to be ridden by anyone else in town. They are also easily customizable with expensive things Aerospoke rims, Phil Wood Hubs, and Nitto Parts. The combination of rare bicycles and expensive parts makes it easy for white people to judge other white people on the quality and originality of their bicycles. This is important in determining if someone is or isn’t cooler than you.

White people also like Mountain Bikes because it lets them be in nature. It’s really not more complicated than that.

And finally, they love expensive Road Bikes and the accompanying spandex uniforms. This enables them to ride long distances and wear really tight clothes without any social stigmas. These types of riders will spend upwards of $5,000 on a bicycle and up to $400 on accessories, but will not ride to work. Perhaps because they cannot wear the spandex. It is important that you never question why someone needs a $5000 bicycle since the answer is always “performance.”

For the most part, these rules have been unisex. But there is a special category of bicycles that appeal far more to white women, the European city bike (pictured). White women have a lot of fantasies about idealized lives, and one of them is living in Europe and riding around an old city on one of these bikes. They dream about waking up and riding to a little cafe, then visiting bakeries and cheese shops and finally riding home to prepare a fancy meal for their friends who will all eat under a canopy with white Christmas lights. This information can be used to help gain the trust/admiration of a white woman, especially if you can pull off a lie about how your mother told you about how she used to do all of these things when she was younger.

And of course, it goes without saying that white people who ride bikes like to talk about how they are saving the earth. If you know a person who rides to work, you should take them aside and say “Hey, thanks. Sincerely, The Earth.” Then give a thumbs up. That white person will ride home on a cloud.

I passed the FAA written exam!

Today I took the FAA written exam for my private pilot's certificate. Out of 61 questions I only missed 7 and passed with a score of 88! When I finished the test I really felt like I missed more than that, so I was pleasantly surprised. But then again, anything over a 70 is a wasted effort! My dad said it's just more stuff that I will need to forget, which is probably true. I really thought the test had some of the "easier" questions on it. Or at least more than I thought there would be. But maybe it's easy when you know the answers..... I might have to ponder that.

Melissa and I are going up tomorrow for what may be our last instructional flight. We need to practice "diversions" from the intended route to get ready for the practical test which I plan to take in two weeks. I also purchased a book to prep for the oral exam which the Designated Flight Examiner will test me on when I go for the practical. Two weeks and counting!

Glad I wasn't this guy

I was at the jobsite when Matthew Morris called and said that a plane was trying to land with the gear UP! The pilots are an instructor and a student, and that's about all he knew. Since the houses we are building are near my house and thus, PDK, I went over there to watch. I guess you could say this is "rubber necking" for pilots! I got to the observation area at the airport and there were probably 40 people there already, along with 3 camera crews. The choppers were in the air, hovering, watching and filiming the action. When I heard about it I immediately called my instructor and it went straight to voicemail. I wasn't really worried that much because our flight school doesn't have a Cessna with retractable gears, but you never know who else she might be flying with. Safe to say, it wasn't her! Jason showed up just in time to watch a beautiful landing, even if all the gears weren't down. The instructor was even able to "taxi" the plane off the runway, or mostly. He came in at the minimum airspeed, full flaps, killed the engine, landed and crumbled the tail wheels, slid on it's belly for a while, then steered off the runway. I was impressed and pray that this never happens to me, dad, or anyone else for that matter.

Go here for the link to the 11 Alive News video.

Click on to get a better view of them on final.

Wally, this is gonna get scary....

They both "high fived" and then hugged. Both pilots and plane WILL fly again. A safe forced landing. I like it!

Brian the Builder

Here are some pictures of the house I am building with Jason and Matthew Morris. They have been in business for almost 3 years and have built 15+ homes so far. I came on board after cycling around Europe just to help them finish a couple of houses, I didn't really expect for it to turn into something full-time, but it did! My goal right now is to just learn since I have never been on this side of the building process, actually in the field and hands-on. Well, almost hands-on, I did pick up a shovel on Saturday and a broom today. Otherwise it's just making sure that things are scheduled and work is getting done to our satisifaction. So far, so good! We framed the house in 8 days, and got all of the mechanical roughs done in about 5 after that. Also included are exterior doors and windows, some concrete for posts and rear patio, fireplace, etc. Oh, and we have passed the HVAC and plumbing inspections on the first pass. Hopefully electrical and framing will go as smoothly, but I doubt it, they are pretty tough. So here's the house we're building! And you can also go to http://www.morris-brothers.com/ and check out some of their other projects.

Kitchen

Buckhead skyline view from the master bedroom! The entire front of the house on the upper level is the master suite and bathroom.