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You’ve got some of our thoughts, experiences, descriptions, and uncategorizables thus far on the blog. Much of our time is also spent interacting. We are in a sense family to eachother, as we eat, sleep, and travail together along this journey’s path. May I be bold enough to take a stab at a bit of a more intimate description of the members of Fueled By Rice…

For lack of a better approach, lets do it alphabetically.

Adam is our youngest member and second tallest. He has received some genuine compliments on his stunning array of whiskers from admiring Chinese girls. This is something none of the rest of us has been able to boast, to my knowledge. Although, I must say, save Nakia, we all have rather stunning arrays.
Adam is our most timely member. He confesses that he often does things “with a mind” and quickly when things are to be done. No messing around. He’s also the primary navigator and Keeper of the Ditu. (”Ditu” is not to be confused with “Digua”, which Adam has also carried from time to time both intentionally and unintentionally. Ditu is simply the map. Digua is a yam-like vegetable that we took malicious pleasure in hiding amongst our various members’ packs until discovered and replaced. This game lasted for a good two weeks, then appeared to be over until one day some time later Peter decided to clean out his bags. The Digua looked rather unfit for anything at that point.)
Adam has a mildly sarcastic but good-natured sense of humor and employs it well. He’s also a clear thinker and has little trouble just saying it how it is, cool like. \
Adam rides the Black Panther, a Cannondale touring bike, and is generally fueled by rice.

Drew is next, or Andrew; either way. That’s me. I’m sort of a pacifier, although I have my moments of instigation… People compliment me on my ability to put them to sleep, whether just talking or playing the guitar and singing. If a strong opinion is voiced, I’m there like Peptol, just in case. I have an unpredictable sense of humor, and at time find myself doing uncharactaristic and possibly embarrassing antics out of nowhere.
I like to sing while biking, especially in the morning. If I’m safely by myself, I may even try to conduct my imaginary orchestra. I think I have the best “thigh tan line” from my biker shorts, although none of us have compared.
I enjoy making ridiculous bets where the odds of me losing are great, but that glimmer of possibility tempts me into handing out icecreams and giving massages maybe more than a reasonable person would.
I ride the Grey Ghost (alias “Grey Donkey” when fully loaded with trailer), a Trek 820 mountain bike from yesteryears, and happen to mostly be fueled by rice.

Jim is our “Italian” from Montana. His dark beard sets him apart from the rest of us “blondish reds” and distinguishes him considerably. He is our third-bass section; one can almost feel the ground trembling when he sings the cowboy song.
Jim has a sense of humor and keen wit. He seems to have mastered the one-liner insertion at the end of a rather serious conversation to flip it into laughter. He also seems to be the most knowlegeable in general. If we have a question, we ask Jim.
He shares the “best Chinese speaker” designation with Peter while his Chinese character recognition is first rate. He most often orders our food and peanuts.
Jim has some erratic biking tendencies that will leave us confused from time to time as to why he is peeling off onto a random dirt road, or just suddenly not there, only to reappear right behind you moments later. We speculate, but none of us is certain what goes on. Perhaps it’s just avoiding a potentially embarrassing explanation that keeps us in suspense…
Jim manhandles “the Moose”, a Trek hybrid-type with surprisingly huge handlebars that look like antlers, and is equally fueled by icecream, peanuts, and rice.

Nakia is our foreign female. Her Bahamian upbringing and clean shaven visage immediatly set her apart as the only non-white non-male. She’s got guts. She’s also got a great voice and sense of adventure she contributes to our band of bikers.
Nakia writes and does music. Five a.m. will find her diligently typing away, huddled around a cup of instant coffee in the glow of her lap top. Her musical creative energy is often frustrated by her band members inability to match her flow. Still, she and Drew have been able to come up with some music worth singing and continue to work on more lines and rifts coming together in pieces.
Nakia bebops to MP3’s on her bike and is always impossibly cold (in the minds of her Minnesota grown teammates). She pedals the Black Stallion, a Giant mountain bike outfitted for travel, and though she prefers fruits and veggies generally, is often also, like the rest, fueled by rice.

Peter is our tallest member, our oldest member, and also looked to as our leader on this bike tour. He’s had the most experience biking and it was his enthusiasm and dream that brought us all together on the other side of the globe.
Peter has a positive outlook and an upbeat attitude that keeps things good, even when Drew tries to rain pessimism all over. Though he’s had five flats, he still hangs onto the threadbare tire that is presumably the original from his custom 80’s road-bike named “Forrest”.
Peter is not afraid of flashing his long muscular legs, which more than one woman has envied for her own, perhaps minus the hair and some of the muscles.
Peter plays the drum, guitar, and Erhu, as well as threading tenor lines into some of our covers and originals. Although he stands out visually here, he’s as Chinese as any Chinese when it comes to getting a deal. No one can pull the “I’ll-just-rip-off-the-foreigner” trick with Peter, to which we owe him many a “quai” (money).
Peter glides upon “The Jolly G.” (Jolly Green Giant) and is most definitely fueled by rice.

So, that’s us in a night’s nutshell. We play music, frisbee, write, read, and discuss items of interest all with generous portions of laughter. We are Fueled By Rice.

*fine print:
Drew accepts little responsibility for angry FBR’s at inadequate or inaccurate information herein portrayed and preemptively suggests they write their own posts. However, none of this information should be taken as complete representations of aforementioned identities and should also be taken with sodium chloride, generally.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 8:31 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.