The Fourth Hand

On the flight back from the USA I watched an unmemorable movie and slept. Upon arrival in Hamburg my lugguage was thoroughly checked by a young overzealous female employee of German customs. I was one of only three other “dark-skinned” people being checked. I guess racial profiling isn’t just done when boarding the plane. At least not in Germany where they wait until you’re almost out of the airport. Couldn’t sleep on Friday night so I read the entire John Irving novel The Fourth Hand which was a bit slow in the beginning but gained more steam towards the middle. I enjoyed Irving’s writing ever since I saw the movie The World According to Garp.

Vail Biking

Today I hooked-up with a local and biked up the frontside of Vail Mountain utilizing the 8.04 km service road up to Mid-Vail (Elevation: 1,150 m). When I lived out here one summer while in college I use to bike up the mountain in 45 minutes after work. This time it took me about an hour and 20 minutes. Not too bad for biking only about twice this summer. We then climbed another 3.21 km on upper part of the Grand Traverse trail and took a rough and rocky descent into the old mining town of Minturn. I had a great time in spite of the beating I took from my non-suspended bike.

Independence Day

It’s the 4th of July, so while the United States is celebrating Independence Day with fireworks and other festivities here in Hamburg the rain and showers bring in just another Freitag. A good place to start looking into the further development of independence in the United States by its policy makers would be MIT‘s Government Information Awareness site which is not unlike what the Internet Movie Database is to film. Also worth a look is WatchBlog for information leading up to the 2004 Presidential Election.