Matt Keally's Blog

I guess it’s been quite the turn of events in the past week or so because this is now my third consecutive summer of having a running injury. Who knows how much longer it will last. Fortunately there are only three more weeks until I get back to school, and only two more of work, not including this week. Since I’m biking now, I go in the morning because of less traffic and the low probability of being stuck in a thunderstorm while out on a ride.

Speaking of traffic last Friday, my first day on the bike was quite a mess because of a few hotshot drivers. The first one came up from behind, screamed at me from the window, cut me off, and then slowed down to 5 mph to try to get me to run into the back of him. And that wasn’t the worst of it, either. On Atlantic Ave around 70th St, some surfer and his boyfriend decided to try the same thing, except the mirror from their Bronco passed just inches from my head. It was also accompanied by the usual blast of the horn and the shaking fists.

Almost immediately after they do this, they swerve off Atlantic and on to the parallel service road where they stop at a house. That encounter had been enough for me and before I knew it, I found myself turning on to the service road and approached the car just as the driver was getting out. As soon as I saw him and the other guy get out I just ripped into them for their little stunt while mixing in a few choice words. I didn’t stop, I just kept on going as I yelled. I looked right into the driver’s eyes as this happened and it was easy to see that he could care less about murdering someone on the road.

That said, it was a good day to die. But I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

So at this point I just continue down the service road on my own, not bothering to get back on Atlantic because that would require me to stop and wait for the traffic to clear. I remembered about a guy that used to work at the front desk at my office who told me he used to bike. He said he didn’t anymore because there were too many cars and too many people just like those idiots. At the time, I thought he was crazy when he told me he had a concealed handgun liscence and carried a handgun in his saddlebag for those close encounters. It would all begin to make sense.

After a couple blocks on the service road a car comes up from behind, and no surprise, it’s the Bronco again. They just wouldn’t quit, and didn’t seem to understand that it was they who nearly ran me over and I who was the one who was threatened. They seemed to think it was the other way around. They tried to run me off the road, but I was able to speed up and stay ahead of the car while they yelled at me to pull over. I figured even if I did pull over, and even if they did try to fight me, I wouldn’t do anything so they could be charged with assault and battery. Besides, I don’t even know how to fight anyone.

Finally, they pull off and get back on Atlantic, leaving me alone. At a light along Atlantic, I get back on while the traffic is stopped, and somehow the Bronco got caught up somewhere farther back and passes me yet again, but at least this time they give me some space while we trade insults.

I haven’t seen them since, fortunately. Unfortunately I didn’t get the liscence plate number or anything. Now I bike in the morning to avoid the traffic and incidents like that as much as I can.

Saturday I got a massage in Newport News from the massage therapist that works with the team. It seemed to help some, but it wasn’t gone when I tried to run again on Monday. I’m supposed to get another appointment soon. After that, since I was so close, I drove up to Williamsburg and biked there. Outside of Williamsburg, there are no traffic or traffic lights to wreak havoc. It did rain, though, and it was the first time in a while I biked in the rain. I really don’t like doing that since you get next to no traction and can slide all over the place. Besides, you can’t even see with all the rain in your eyes.

Yesterday the other intern left to go to Intel for the fall semester. I’ve been looking at a couple big company websites that offer internships and will probably apply for one for next summer. With most of large prestigious companies, 10,000 apply and only 150 – 400 get them each year. The odds of getting one are small, but my existing experience and strong education background should at least even the playing field.

I read on Tom’s Hardware last night that based on my video card RAM, that I fall in to the 3rd highest of four quality settings for Doom 3. On an earlier article I read from HardOCP, I got the impression that the game looked good even on older Direct X 8 cards. I did read in the newer article that even on ‘medium’ the game still plays and looks good, but it’s been awhile since I’ve been behind the curve. Still, I am suprised that the requirements for this game are so high that the system that would run it well on the highest settings isn’t even out yet. I have a Made-by-ATi 9800 Pro, 128 MB and a year ago it blew the doors off of every game I had. The only thing I have played so far that slows it down is FarCry. And suddenly the whole paradigm shifts. Ah well, Doom 3 should be a really cool game from what I’ve heard and even with the graphics settings turned down a bit.