Intellectual Poison

I can never remember, when you're counting something down, do you include today and the day of the event? If today is Monday and the event is Saturday then does that make it five days or six? I could make cogent arguments either way but the underlying reality is that come Saturday morning at 9:45 or so, I will be on or near the starting line for the Avia Wildflower Mountain Bike Triathlon.

Which means this is the last week to get some reasonably decent workouts in, add a little extra cardio to the tank, work on transitions and get our gear sorted out and then packed into the truck. We will be camping out at the triathlon along with 20,000 other triathletes and their support teams/families which will also be a new experience as the boys have not really done any camping save for sleeping in the tent in the backyard.

I don't feel completely ready for the race especially since my training has taken a hit in the last week since the Sea Otter Classic where I bonked very hard. My legs have felt quite leaden lately but I'm doing my best to spin the deadness out of them. I've been putting in the time when I can and will race as best I can. I'm going to be approaching the race differently than the mountain bike race last week. I will be pacing myself better, holding energy in reserve, prepping better the day before and starting the race with a clearer race plan.

And my main focus of the entire thing is to have fun, spend some quality time with my family and to not take everything so seriously. I know I'm not going to win so I'm going to try and have a good time.

I still need to put together my checklist of gear, camping and other stuff. This is going to be a busy and fast week and I'm sure there will be much stress in the process too. Hopefully it will all end up in an awesome time for all of us. And maybe I'll get some cool photos as well.

But really, I just want it to be a fun weekend.

Labels: photography, race, training, triathlon

I spend the majority of my day either in front of a computer or working on a computer. As the computer is pretty much my reality, I've put a fair (or unfair if you ask my wife) amount of time into making my interface to the computer as easy as possible. To that end, I implement a hodge podge of utilities, shortcuts, apps, extensions and other doodads to make my day better and more fun. I'm going to try and put together a more or less comprehensive list of what makes my tech world roll.

So here's my list of computer resources I make use of most everyday, I was going to try and rank them from most to least important but their importance is situational and varies throughout the day (plus I'm lazy). The vast majority of these resources are web-based and usable by all manner of OS, Mac only resources are in italics:
Quicksilver - app launcher and much, much more.
LogMeIn - remote access over the web to my home computer.
XMarks - saves your bookmarks in the cloud!
FEBE - backs up your FireFox extensions, save the file to Dropbox below
Dropbox - like a flash drive that you can access anywhere but better and more awesome because it'll play videos and music and show photos even if I access them via my iPhone or Touch. Makes it very easy to keep my most used documents both backed up and accessible.
Apple Remote Desktop - easiest way to control Macs.
Remote Desktop Connection - control PCs or log into remote servers.
Google Reader - stay on top of dozens, hundreds and even thousands of sites in one location. And here's a link to my Shared Items page if, you know, you wanted to follow me.
Google Docs - need to have something available at all times from anywhere? Create the doc in Google Docs and you can access and update it easily. I have my workout program in a spreadsheet that I can access and update via my iPod Touch at the gym just because I can.
Twitter - entertainment, connections, information and more. Twitter is a great resource that can also be a total distraction.
Remember the Milk - how I manage my tasklists, syncs to my iPhone, accessible via the web and pretty simple to use make it work for me. Oh yeah, tags and Smartlists make it highly configurable too!
Pandora - life without music sucks, Pandora makes it easy to listen to music you like.
iTunes - when Pandora is unavailable or not giving me the goods, iTunes will absolutely deliver music I want.
Flashblock - Flash is ubiquitous on the internet, the vast majority of it is worthless CPU-sucking advertising. This stops most of it before you even see it. (Firefox only).
Adblock Plus - What Flashblock misses, Adblock Plus catches. I rarely see ads on sites now, they load faster, they don't have seizure inducing flashes and I'm not "tempted" by before and after muscle pics or de-flabbing of bellies. (Firefox only).
Bit.ly - URL shortening with lots of data on the back end to figure out if your links are being clicked at all.
VMware Fusion - some of my work must be done in Windows and on Internet Explorer, VMware Fusion makes it pretty easy to fire up XP (or the Win7 install I'm doing later today) and do what I need and then shut it back down, all without rebooting!
MS Office - Yes, its a necessary evil.
Workgroup Manager - Currently driving me crazy but when it is set up and working properly it can make computer management simple and awesome.
Firefox - Most customizable and useful browser available. A post on how I configure Firefox should probably be in the works after this post is published.

And the bit players in my digital drama:
Handbrake - ripping DVDs is easy peasy.
iPhoto - photo organization and some minor editing capabilities.
Aperture - more powerful than iPhoto but nowhere near as intuitive to use.
Flickr - was far and away the best photography based social networking site, has slid a long ways since Yahoo took over but is still a great resource and inspiration.
Flickr Uploader - Have been using this to post photos to Flickr for a long time but with the Flickr integration into iPhoto I'm not sure there's much use for it anymore.
iMovie HD - iMovie 08 and 09 suck. Sorry but I simply cannot stand the new interface and will not do any video editing in either. I much, much, much prefer iMovie HD (or iMovie 6 as it is also known).
iDVD - mastering DVDs is pretty easy (if slow) with iDVD. You can slap on some cool themes and let it encode overnight to wake up to a beautifully rendered master. Wish it were faster and didn't require re-encoding if you quit and restart the program (like say if you wanted to do something else on the computer) but it works well and can churn out disks at a pretty good pace if you need to produce a bunch.
Skitch - if you need to add some text to a graphic (photo or gif) then Skitch is definitely the simplest way to do it I've come across.  (Site is currently down as of this posting.)
Macromedia Contribute 3 -  I have to use this POS website editor to update some of my school site websites. It is a bad program and I don't like it much but it is the only option I have. I mean, come on now, I can't just edit the damned HTML directly? That's stupid.
Touch Mouse - This cool program works with an app I've downloaded to my iPhone and Touch that lets me use the iPhone/Touch as a remote (and wireless) keyboard and trackpad. This can be exceptionally handy when giving a presentation, using a projector or just wanting to demonstrate how freaking awesome technology is. That it is free is even cooler.

I'm sure there are resources I'm forgetting about and maybe I'll come back and them as I remember. But, for now, this is my list and I'm sticking to it.

What are the digital resources you can't live without?

Labels: resources

Studebt - student debt.

Paintience - patient while in pain or waiting patiently for paint to dry.

Insuckticide - cheap and ineffective insecticide.

Fagnet - magnet for gay folks, someone who's naturally gravitated towards by gay people, Barbara Streisand and Ricky Martin come to mind.

Divil - the evil deity to whom you sell your soul to gain the ability to perform the Triple Lindy.

As always, these new words will be cross posted to the Fictionarium.

Labels: nwotd

Last week and the two final days of the week before were spring break in my school district where I work. The district offices were blissfully quiet and empty and I was able to get a bunch of work done which was nice.

Fast forward to today and there is construction or something going on in the building which requires them to cut into the walls every couple of minutes. The noise and vibration are echoing through the offices and are incredibly loud, distracting and annoying.

This work could have and should have been done last week when it would have been least disruptive. But no, they are doing it now and driving me and everyone else in a hundred foot radius up a tree with the non-stop noise.

Sometimes I do wish I was working for a company that needed to do things efficiently and smartly. This bureaucratic education stuff can get old because of the built-in dumbassery.

Labels: distraction, stupid, work

As much of my life goes, this post has come about as a reaction. In this case, from a new follower on Twitter who has a bio pic that can only be described as 80's Douchebag. He's sitting in his car, likely a BMW convertible, looking over his right shoulder with his sunglasses partially down his nose and he's got an "Oh, you FOUND me" expression on his face. The scene is staged and I'm sure it was part of a photoshoot he bought for himself.

Seriously. The image you are conveying with this bio pic is that you're an asshole. Sorry but that's what I take from it. The only way you could look like a bigger tool is if you'd popped your collar but you're wearing a button down, not a polo shirt so that's probably against the rules according to your GQ style advisor. You could be the villain in one of Adam Sandler's movies (thinking the douche in the Wedding Singer).

Sure, my bio pic isn't much better but at least I'm not mugging like an idiot for the camera. And I'm actually doing something I love doing which lets even a casual observer see at a glance that I'm a mountain biker. The other picture tells me nothing except he's got a receding hairline and a goofy smile to go along with his Bimmer convertible.

There are other blog posts and articles detailing the different kinds of avatar/bio pics that people use and what they mean.

Formal Headshot - The straight up head shot is more formal and indicates a balance between serious and frivolous.

Angled Headshot - non-conformist and probably pretty good at snarking others.

Look at My Boobs - usually a Twitter slutbot but sometimes just a good looking lady who's proud of her mammary assets. Which is fine, there are almost certainly men on Twitter with bio pics of them flexing to show off their pecs or arms or whatever body part they think will garner them the most Oohs and Aahs and follows. This bio pic is usually taken in a mirror so the person is not looking into the camera but at themselves which makes sense because they are totally into how awesome they look.

Activist - image is always changing to reflect the current "movement" be it election day solidarity, Hope for Haiti or PETA. This is more of an add-on than a stand alone. The original bio pic is embellished with a tint or twibbon (an annoying term that means a Twitter ribbon on your bio pic). I'm guessing these folks have bumper stickers on their car that say things like "Subvert the Dominant Paradigm" even though they may not be able to define what a paradigm is.

Corporate Logo - not interested in social networking but very interested in driving traffic and sales. I'm generally not interested in following corporate Twitter accounts though there are some exceptions in regards to bike companies.

My Pet is Teh Kewt - bio pics of animals, cats or dogs usually, indicates someone who holds their animal in rather high regard. I use a favorite image of my dog leaping as my Disqus avatar because it is a funny pic.

Ze Party Animal - a bio pic of you doing a keg stand relays the clear message that you are a party machine. You rock out with your cock out and can't understand why you end up going home alone most every night.

Stalker - if you use a pic of a celebrity as your avatar you are either obsessed or devoid of your own personality. Either way, not a compelling argument to follow you. And oh yeah, the celebrity you are "honoring" with their image as your pic? They think you're creepy as hell and wouldn't let you anywhere near them, ever.

Default - you can't be bothered to personalize your profile or are incredibly boring.

High School Yearbook Black and White Headshot - this bio pic tells me you really don't like having your picture taken and/or you really wish you could be 18 again. You also regularly tell those damned kids to get off your lawn.

Cartoon - either a fan or someone who absolutely hates having their picture taken or hasn't been able to take/get a photo of themselves that doesn't make them want to puke.

Animated Gif - one recent new follower had figured out how to put a rather long sequence into his bio pic of a stick figure trying to break through the wall of the graphic. Like a five minute sequence. I watched it once and was not compelled to follow him back.

Labels: bio, messages, twitter

We have had a rather projectilerific end to our spring break with first Sullivan coming down with a curious stomach bug that induces spontaneous projectile vomiting at random times. Then Graydon picked it up and spent all day Saturday on the couch puking into a bucket and being very, very unhappy.

So then it only follows naturally that I would get the delightful bug myself. And get it I did. I was over at a friend's playing cards when it got me. I was able to excuse myself and go empty out my insides in relative peace outside.

You know what's sort of funny about vomiting? You never seem to remember just how horribly unpleasant it is. I am always shocked by really how terribly nasty the whole ordeal is. Is it made better or worse when the event takes place in a garden or on a cold tile bathroom floor?

No matter. It sucks pretty royally where ever it takes place. I recovered enough to go back in and get cleaned up and started to make my see-ya-laters. But instead got horned into another couple of hands of cards which actually worked out well for me since I was $35 down and ended up only $5. And the entire contents of my stomach, of course.

But, when I was getting ready to leave, the waves came back and I knew I had to hurl again. Speaking of which, hurl is a good term for puking. You're hurling your insides out which might explain why everything hurts so much the next day.

Which was Sunday. Sunday's been a wasted day. The upside? I probably dropped 8 pounds overnight. The downside? Now I'm severely dehydrated and have really sore muscles.

But both Sullivan and Graydon have pretty much bounced back and are playing their favorite game of trying to annoy the other.

Although Sullivan had another "episode" last night which required me to strip his bed, change his clothes, remake his bed and get him back into it after also protecting it as best I could from recurrent episodes. Lots of fun. No, not really.

The odd thing is that Sully was fine yesterday. He had not a trace of being sick in him and was actually quite upset that he couldn't go to school.

And the latest update is that Sully made it through the night without puking which was a nice change. And he was allowed to go to school which made him quite happy!

Labels: sick

Here are my Ten (or More) Twitter Laws.

1. Thou shalt not abuse the DM.
2. Thou shalt not whore links non-stop.
3. Thou shalt not post nothing but quotes.
4. Thou shalt not @reply exclusively.
5. Thou shalt not tweet without spell check.
6. Thou shalt not engage in gratuitous txtspk.
7. Thou shalt not feed (follow) the Twitter sluts.
8. Thou shalt not tweet the cursed terms, marketing or porn, lest a plague of bot followers descend upon thee.
9. Thou shalt not complain about how hard your life is because you have to travel all over the damned world all the time.
10. Thou shalt not follow me in the hopes that I will follow you back.

And some bonus guidelines.
If your Twitter name is something like RainbowOneCarpets then you can rest assured that I have absolutely no interest in your tweets.
If your Twitter name is something girly like SweetCakes1980 and your registered name is George Jones then you will not be getting followed back.
If your Twitter stream is loaded with links to your blog posts and/or other news articles without any personal tweets then you will not be getting followed back.
If your Twitter stream is impossible to read because you thought light print on a light background looked cool then you will not be getting followed back.

Labels: guidelines, law, twitter

You'd think working over spring break would be a total bummer and it would be if I pulled a regular paycheck for weeks when I don't work. But, since I don't get paid unless I put in the hours, I'm happy to work in the peace and quiet of a mostly empty office building.

This way I stand a reasonable chance of getting some stuff done. Maybe even some work too!

Yet another sign of the impending end of all reality - KFC Has A Bacon Sandwich That Uses Fried Chicken As "Bread", a mere 1700 calories in this dainty nibble. Sure it tastes good, its bacon and cheese flavored fat wrapped in chicken flavored fat. You'd be better served just eating directly from the tub of lard and cutting out that annoying middle man stuff like chewing or flavor.

Calf cramping - One of the side effects of a lifetime spent spinning my pedals on singletrack and trails is that I have rather large calves. They are a great source of power when I need to motor up hills but they also have a tendency to cramp up when my body gets worked harder or longer than it is used to. Part of this problem is hydration but part of it is just due to having large calves. I'm currently working on a stretching regimen to help keep them loose so that I'll actually be able to transition from swim to bike to run without lock ups. The first bit of advice I'm going to try is to spin the last couple of minutes on the bike before jumping off and starting the run. We'll see how it goes.

Photo sales - I had an email from someone who wants to use one of my photos as part of their office decor. It is for a teaching hospital which is all well and good but I'm not so sure about giving away my products. There is little chance of any further sales beyond this one. I don't think I'm going to be able to just give away the use of the image. If they want to purchase the use of the image then that's another thing altogether but I'm just not down with giving things away just because they ask.

Sarah Failin's Show on Fox News - You're set up for a craptastic failure when two of the people you are purported to have interviewed for your new show know nothing about an interview and the real plan was to use a canned interview. That Sarah Palin's new show suffered crappy ratings tells me that there might just be hope for humanity after all. We're probably still screwed but this is a sign pointing in the right direction.

Jesse James - the poster boy for schmucks everywhere. You cheated on your talented and gorgeous wife with some gutter trash tattoos on their faces skeezers? And then spent a couple of days in rehab as some limp little gesture to your soon-to-be ex-wife. You are seriously one of the most pathetic losers in the public spotlight right now. Astonishing what a douchebag you are.

Health Care Reform - oh my gawd, the world didn't come to an end and, to my knowledge, no death panel has decreed that I must die. All of the hysterical GOP hyperbole has come to pretty much what people with brains expected, that is, nothing at all. Sure we're not finished and there's still many miles to go before health care can be considered fixed but passing the big first step is huge in terms of where we go from here. Congrats to Obama and the Democratic leadership for having the balls to get it done. I dare the GOP to try and repeal it. I double dog dare you.

Baseball - it is amazing to me how much less I give a damn about the hand basket we're all scooting towards hell in now that baseball is back. Now I can wallow in statistics and enjoy the schadenfreude of the Dodgers sucking all season long.

Racing and camping - this month will see two new activities added to our family. One is going to be my first ever mountain bike race on the 18th at the Sea Otter Classic in Laguna Seca. I'm not nervous about the race as I'm planning on just going out and riding as best I can and letting the chips fall where they may. The other side of this coin is that we will be doing some camping over the next few weeks to prepare for our triathlon weekend at the end of the month. Should be fun, should being the operative word!

That's about it for now, much stuff going on these days and most of its pretty good stuff!

Labels: random

No reason to post this aside from the fact that it makes me smile to look at my son goofing around. If the weather cooperates, we might get a little light trail riding in tomorrow, just me and Grady.

The search is on for a bike for Grady to upgrade to. He has clearly out grown the 12 incher here and will be much more capable on a 16 inch or even possibly a 20.

Labels: bike, children, photography

The UFC and Spike are kicking off another season of The Ultimate Fighter tonight and are putting on a free UFC event to start the season off right. Here are my predictions for the fights tonight.

Main event:
155 lbs.: Kenny Florian vs. Takanori Gomi
Prediction: Florian by TKO

Main card (Televised):
265 lbs.: Roy Nelson vs. Stefan Struve
Prediction: Nelson by smother submission

185 lbs.: Nate Quarry vs. Jorge Rivera
Prediction: Quarry by TKO

155 lbs.: Ross Pearson vs. Dennis Siver
Prediction: Pearson by Unanimous Decision

Under card (May not be broadcast):
155 lbs.: Rob Emerson vs. Nik Lentz
Prediction: Lentz by Unanimous Decision

155 lbs.: Gleison Tibau vs. Caol Uno
Prediction: Tibau by TKO

155 lbs.: Rafaello Oliveira vs. Andre Winner
Prediction: Winner by TKO

155 lbs.: Ronys Torres vs. Jacob Volkmann
Prediction: Volkman by Unanimous Decision

185 lbs.: Gerald Harris vs. Mario Miranda
Prediction: Harris by TKO

170 lbs.: Charlie Brenneman vs. Jason High
Prediction: High by Submission

185 lbs.: Lucio Linhares vs. Yushin Okami
Prediction: Linhares by TKO

Update: The annoying thing about tape delayed sports events is that, with Twitter and real-time sports sites, there's almost no way to avoid seeing who won and who lost well before the events. In this case, I knew every winner and loser and didn't even end up trying to watch the fights themselves. Which kind of sucks.

Anyway, how'd I do? Looks like I called 8 for 11 on the night. I did not predict Roy Nelson's big knockout of Struve and I did not see Nate Quarry getting schooled by Jorge Rivera. I'm not unhappy with my predictions but I am unhappy that the night had been ruined before I'd gotten a chance to watch the fights.

That and why does Spike lock down their damned content so much? It is annoyingly difficult to find an online feed to watch the shows on Spike.

Labels: mma, prediction, predictions, UFC

My training schedule went a little bit sideways this weekend. Our schedule could have accommodated some workouts but I wasn't feeling it and decided to let it slide. Not to say that I did nothing but I definitely did not hit the weights or the bikes or the treadmill or the pool. I did swing a whip and take down a whole ton of weeds which did get me sore.

But today is officially the get back on track day. It is supposed to be a rest day according to my schedule but I don't see another rest day. I see a good hard sweat in my future.

And just under three weeks until my first mountain bike race ever at the Sea Otter Classic! That should prove interesting. I'm trying to approach it more from an educational experience and trying not to worry about where I place but I also expect that my competitive juices will kick in once the race has started. I'm looking to have some fun, do decently well on the race and not be last.

A little sliding is acceptable but anything more than a day or two could be bad for my training and I've come too far to let anything derail me now.

Labels: racing, training, triathlon

Great, great card lined up for tonight's UFC 111. Headlined by a couple of big time fights in Hardy taking on GSP and Mir and Carwin going at it. Saunders and Fitch as a late replacement bout along with Diaz and Markham means this ought to be a fun card all the way through.

Should be a night of fights that will not disappoint. Here are my predictions for the night's fights.

Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy
Prediction: GSP by TKO

Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin
Prediction: Carwin by KO

Ben Saunders vs. Jon Fitch
Prediction: Saunders by TKO

Fabricio Camoes vs. Kurt Pellegrino
Prediction: Pellegrino by Submission

Jim Miller vs. Mark Bocek
Prediction: Miller by TKO

Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham
Prediction: Diaz by Submission

Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown
Prediction: Almeida by Decision

Jared Hamman vs. Rodney Wallace
Prediction: Wallace by Decision

Tomasz Drwal vs. Rousimar Palhares
Prediction: Drwal by Decision

Matt Riddle vs. Greg Soto
Prediction: Riddle by TKO

There ya go.

Update: It was a great night of fights, wish I could have seen the undercard battles as well but that's how it goes sometimes. I ended up pulling a 7-3 here and a very solid 8-1 on the ESPN pick'em. The Carwin massacre of Mir was impressive, fast and demonstrated how much power Carwin has in those short punches. Mir looked huge but it wasn't anywhere near enough to slow down the Carwin 1st round stoppage train.

The GSP/Hardy fight was impressive but more so because GSP dominated another strong fighter nearly from opening bell to final bell. Dan Hardy never got a chance to open up and launch his bombs. GSP took him down at will, controlled him from the top position and basically had complete control the entire time. Watching GSP fight is like watching BJ Penn fight at lightweight, there's just nobody close to his level.

It was a bad pick to take Saunders over Fitch because Fitch is a smothering kind of overpowering guy, he does pretty what GSP does, take them down and control them. Not as dynamic and not as complete as GSP but Fitch is a very, very good fighter.

It was a good night of fights, wish I'd been able to rally up some pals to drink and play cards but that's alright, I was able to concentrate on the fights.

Labels: mma, prediction, predictions, UFC

So here it is, Monday morning again and I'm plugging away at computers on one of my school campuses. We had a pretty good weekend even if the weather never did live up to the hype. And I got two distinctly different and good workouts in which have shown me just how far I've got to go before my body is ready for the triathlon.

I also signed up for another race in about three weeks at the 2010 Sea Otter Classic in Monterey. I'm going to do the Cat 3 Cross Country starting at a bleary and cold 8 am on Sunday morning. I sort of pushed myself into it because I've always wanted to race at the Sea Otter and, because I'm a cheapie, I could get $10 off my entry (the offer for which expired at midnight last night). I've never raced mountain bikes before so this should be fun and it is the Sea Otter's 20th year so there's that too. I'm not quite sure how that weekend will work since I will likely have to camp out there or hit the road butt ass early on Sunday to make the start. But there is time to sort out the details now that the race is on.

I also did some additional tweaking on NorCal Bikers, added some Amazon affiliate links because I need to get some stuff at Amazon anyway and might as well generate a little side income from the process.

And for the workouts, I converted an 8 week training schedule into an Excel spreadsheet, then uploaded it to Dropbox so I could check it anywhere and then went a step further and uploaded it to my Google Docs so I can access it AND update it with workout data on the fly. Jay suggested going even further and importing into my Google calendar but I have a tendency to flip my workouts a day forward or backward so not sure if that'd work.

But I did get a good run and swim in on Saturday and then a good mountain bike ride in on Sunday. My legs were pretty worked after the run and swim but those sored-up muscles didn't infringe on my cycling at all. I'm well ahead of my training schedule at this point but still need to bring my running up by quite a bit.

Today is a scheduled rest day which is good since its also my big work day with a nearly full day at one school and then heading out to another school for a shorter day there.

My swimming is coming along pretty well overall. I need to work on my ability to keep going without needing to stop. But its good for now and I'm improving my technique and stamina each time I'm going out. I'm in the market for some better swim trunks since the board short style is like wearing a big ol' drag suit. No, I am not going for the banana hammock Speedo style. At least not yet. For now I'm going to get some square brief style trunks.

The one downside to swimming on Saturday is the little heated pool area got very crowded with people who seemed to screech almost constantly. It got kind of annoying.

The run was pretty good too considering I haven't really done much running since back in high school when I ran cross country for a couple of years. Then I discovered mountain bikes and was like, running is for suckers, biking is for me! Only now I'm having to learn how to run all over again. I'm working on my stamina, working on my stride and trying not to pound my shins and calves into cramped up jelly. Seriously, I've never had to deal with cramping in my shins like this and its rather painful. But it is coming along.

I fully expect to be on the starting line for the triathlon fully confident in my preparations for the race. Over the next few weeks I will start to work on my transition work and actually changing over from swimming to biking and then from biking to running.

On Sunday I got out and hit Nisene Marks for my standard (though awesome) ride. The trails had really dried out alot more in the last week since I was there. Still some sloppy spots but overall the system is in great shape and I did not crash into a pricker bush this time which always helps. On Sunday afternoon I took the kids out to the huge parking lot behind West Marine and they rode their bikes around the lot for a bit before Grady decided he wanted to try riding the hill that leads down to the slough path. And he rode up and down the gravel hill 20 or more times. He has really taken to riding without his training wheels and is fast as heck now.

The next step will be bumping him up to a bike with 16 inch wheels and getting Sully going on the little bike with the training wheels re-attached. And then the whole family will be almost ready to go bike touring together. I can't wait!

And last night everyone had a pretty low key evening. Sully passed out on the couch at about 7:30 and Grady put up virtually no fight when it was time to take him up to bed.

Another good weekend with lots of good exercise!

Labels: bicycling, catchup, running, swimming, workout

This will probably be a fairly random ramble through the in-box in my brain. Bear with me or not, its all good.

Burn Notice - I am loving this show. It is smart, sexy, funny and cool. The writing is crisp, the action scenes are very well done, the plots are a bit over the top but that's part of what makes it fun. And I have a massive crush on Gabrielle Anwar. It isn't as hyper-realistic and gritty as The Shield but it is just as good.

Education Funding - There is a severe disconnect between the mentality of cutting education budgets and then simultaneously requiring test scores to keep going up. This is a doing more with less dichotomy and it is chock full o' fail.

Triathlon Training - There's a huge difference between being in bicycling shape and being in swimming shape. I've been learning that one the hard way over the last week or so. But knowing is half the battle and I'm improving my swimming rapidly. Next up will be adding in running which ought to be another massive shock to the system. Also, note to self, find out what it means that I can exercise for extended periods of time at my supposed 100% heart rate (220 minus my age).

PC Tech Support - I have become a very big fan of a utility program called Advanced System Care. It is a quick download and it cleans out Spyware/Adware, Registry errors, privacy files and temp files. It runs incredibly quickly and can turn a crapped out landfill-bound computer into a usable machine again. Very impressed with it. And, oh yeah, its free. There is a pay-for version but the free version seems to kick all kinds of butt all on its own.

SXSW - I think I want to go to this too-cool-for-school conference next year if there is anyway to swing it. The reports coming from attendees, the conference tracks and the overall awesomeness is like a bug light for geeks and I'm an unabashed geek.

Christian Home Schooling - no curriculum oversight means evangelical Christians can teach their kids pretty much whatever bullshit they want to, like, oh I don't know, that evolution is crap and Intelligent Design is the more widely accepted version how things came to be. Which means, of course, that these are growing up ignorant of reality and are instead being kept stupid intentionally to keep the faith. Or some such crap. Either way, we have kids being taught demonstrably false junk science and calling it home schooling.

John Edwards - liar, cheater, cancer stricken wife beater (truth be told, I can't find a reliable source that he actually did beat his sick wife). Total scumbag shiny face piece of shit. That's about all I have to say. Though his mistress is pretty hot in the photos in GQ.

Tea Party Protests - these Tea Party people are among the loudest and most astonishing and openly hateful people in America today. They are pawns of corporate interests and have the grotesque audacity to openly mock handicapped people and minorities in the name of their totally twisted for of patriotism. They would be laughable but since they are actually serious about their beliefs (as beamed into their walnut sized brains by their GOP overlords, of course) so I just tend to feel a sort of pity for them. Like they are too stupid to know any better. But they should know better, they just choose to join in on the herd mentality and allow themselves to be lead by people who do not have their interests at all on their agenda. They are pawns, stupid, hateful, ugly pawns.

And, with that, I'm going to saddle up and get myself a bike ride in. The training continues and I plan to be in exceptional condition come the start of my race!

Labels: random

An odd Sunday telecast of mixed martial arts action, UFC on Versus: Vera vs. Jones (though we are all excited that the UFC is back on Versus!), is fast approaching and yet another card stacked with some fights that look pretty exciting on paper from the main event on down. Which makes for a fun night but a tough card to predict.

But I'm gonna give it a shot anyway because that's just how I roll.

Main Event:
Brandon Vera vs. Jon Jones
Prediction: Jones by TKO

Junior Dos Santos vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
Prediction: Dos Santos by TKO

Chieck Kongo vs. Paul Buentello
Prediction: Kongo by TKO

Alessio Sakara vs. James Irvin
Prediction: Sakara by Submission

Clay Guida vs. Shannon Gugerty
Prediction: Guida by Unanimous Decision

Eliot Marshall vs. Vladimir Matyusheno
Prediction: Marshall by Submission

Duane Ludwig vs. Darren Elkins
Prediction: Ludwig by Knockout

John Howard vs. Daniel Roberts
Prediction: Howard by TKO

Brendan Schaub vs. Chase Gormley
Prediction: Schaub by TKO

Mike Pierce vs. Julio Paulino
Prediction: TKO

Eric Schafer vs. Jason Brilz
Prediction: Schafer by Submission

Fight of the Night: Dos Santos vs. Gonzaga
Submission of the Night: Marshall
Knockout of the Night: Ludwig

And there ya go. I've been hovering just outside the top 100 in the fantasy league on UFC.com. Maybe this is the week I break into the double digits. Check back and see! And if you've got some predictions then leave a comment and let's hear 'em!

And then, just as soon as we've caught our breath from tomorrow's fights, there are some more outstanding fights next weekend with Georges St. Pierre defending his title against Dan Hardy and Shane Carwin finally locking horns with Frank Mir. March is going to go out with a BANG!

Labels: mma, prediction, predictions, UFC