Riff raff

My trip to the darkside continues and with pretty good results. I came somewhat close to winning the GA master's criterium championship yesterday. 2nd ain't so bad, especially considering I tried a solo bridge to 2 in the break and I'm pretty crappy when it comes to breakaways.  I went Shogren style and doubled up races and actually raced the Pro-1-2 well (9th) but lacked any sprint snap when it counted.  Its all training for Trans Rockies, minus the mountains, mountain bike, trails and long, long days.

We have a nice little garden of herbs, arugula, spinach, tomatoes and compost-heap pumpkins.  Keeping the pests at bay is more difficult than I thought, but we're using Neem oil and dish soap.

I'm more tan than I've ever been (not saying much).

I got a letter of concern from one friend regarding another:

I dont know him well enough, but your buddy Myerson is bragging on his blog about how much money he is making as a professional cyclist in America. It is like a recorded loop of a person misusing a word in public, for everybody to hear. The feeling of embarrassment I get in my stomach on his behalf kind of hurts.  I know he is your friend, so maybe you can subtly tell him that he is like the man in section 8 housing with gold teeth?
Thank you


No comment on this matter. But I see a connection here.
Myerson1 Myersonson

The darkside

This summer is grinding out, and quickly too.  I started working with my cycling buddy Paul, he's the savannah version of Yozel (old hat at cycling & self employed handyman).  Luckily we're working indoors now.  Getting my sorry ass used to physical work is hard enough, adjusting to 90+ everyday will be another thing.  Cycling wise I'm doing well. Looks like the Cutters and I are winning the series thus far.  I had a nice dose of real racing this past weekend at the Low Country Challenge, a 3-event omnium.  Note to self: P-1-2 is way faster than Nestor Cup, and I still totally suck at road races but can manage alright in crits.  Something about road racing just destroys me.  This weekend I'll hit up the GA crit championship.  Man, i'm turning into a darksider again.
IronMan
So we have a teammate called, well lets call him Flex. He's got an Ironman logo tattooed on his calf, so I won't need to describe him further.   He's a numbers guy, like most dorks who train with a powerWhomper or whatever.  The other week he calls boss and says he's had a good week of training and is probably back up to "72 or 73 percent."  Which is impressive, because only a week before at the Springfield race when I asked him how he was feeling/racing he said plainly "I'm only at 60%" which is an interesting answer to how'd yer race go fella?  So we're anxiously awaiting Flex moving from mere mortal into the 85% percentile and beyond.  Now if he could only learn to corner...

Must be the rainy season

Tonight we got to see a showing of the new design documentary OBJECTIFIED.  Its pretty cool if you're into design or have any notions of interest. It was made by the same dude who filmed HELVETICA: a cool punk rock guy who wants to know about stuff, so he goes out and makes movies about these things.

Only two days away from 'The List' training ride. Wow, I can't wait to not go and not be apart of having some training fun.  Here are my options:(1) make my own list of hard-drinking buddy's who've hacked it up on the street or in some chick's closet or off the balcony at the last party. We'll all go out and have some real drinking fun; (2)I get all of the slowest people around and take them on a bike ride. God forbid I do such a thing (since I did make 'The List') because there is no way to have some training fun with slow people or cat 4's or people who don't race. They smell weird and rarely know all the names I drop.

Another gem from my pops. I guess this gives conservatives a big old boner, something they would only get normally from anonymous gay sex behind their wives' backs. No offense, dad.  Whats interesting is the shift from somewhat sensible blogs (which I never read) about how Bush was da bomb to these fun (complete with yay-fun type faces!) we're-so-better-than-the-black-socialist-guy tidbits. Here goes:

:For those that don't know about history... Here is a condensed version:

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals, and

2. Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair20dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girlie-men. Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in  Hollywood, and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer, mostly Bud. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, members of the military, airline pilots and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to  America  . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history:

It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it.

A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to tick them off.
 

And there you have it. Let your next action reveal your true self!

I totally got mad first, but consider this my forward.

Little lists

1. I'm unloading some nice new road stuff on ebay. Start HERE.  I'm also selling my Taurine mt frame/fork sooner or later.  Find my email on the right.

2.Justin Timberlake is most definitely the best SNL guest. ever..

3.Two weeks of school left. that came up all of the sudden. Weird quarter. In two weeks i'll have a crap load of time on my hands. need. job. now.

4. Our little garden is awesome. My first real, personal garden with tomatoes, herbs, arugula, spinach and a few potatoes. Our compost also gives of us little gifts of something mysterious (i think pumpkins) that sprouts large and in charge in every spot we use compost.

5. For mega:  has this place changed me? not sure yet. It makes me see that sexism is alive and well, that southerns just love to hear themselves talk.  If anything, living somewhere 'different' certainly has subtle effects, and certainly gives you a greater breadth of understanding people and places.

So i guess I've earned my stripes. I got this email a few weeks ago
Welcome Gentlemen to "The List",

All of you have made "the list" b/c you have shown you can hack it in some form or another.  The idea behind this list is to generate consistent training among as many on this list as much as possible.  By doing this we can push each other beyond our normal limits for better training and have more fun.

Savannah Invitational Rides are invite only rides.  If you are on the list then you made the cut to be invited.  These invite only rides will happen once every 4-6 weeks with different meeting times, routes, and themed training agendas for each one.  Some may fall on a weekend or weekday and may involve tempo or aerobic.  Make sure after reading this email you destroy it.


Wow. This pretty much explains the elitism of road racing that helped me understand why the mtb scene is waaaay more fun.  Some guy hand selects the 'strongest' people and creates some workout for us (whatever he wants to do).  Yeah, that sounds fun.  How about a tranny theme? or a GO OUT AND HAVE SOME FUN theme?


Flu prep

Windows are all duct taped up and we're masked with three weeks of water and 12 gauge shells.  Ain't no swine gonna dine on my behind.

and you should KEEP ON PANICKING.

In other good news, I remember how to road race again.  Two wins in a row, this time it was a legit race (as legit as a 2/3 race preceeding a pro1/2 crit can be).  As long as they don't last more than an hour, i'm all good.  This USA Crits speedweek thing is fun, minus all those asshole pro racer guys.  BTW-those guys are rockstars. I was talking to Myerson after Beaufort yesterday and we got interrupted by 3 chicks who just needed to have a picture with him.  Just what he needs. 

Good things happening. First, its like high 80s right now and beautiful. I like it.  Cycling is going well, so well in fact that I won the first NestorCup race on tuesday night.  I haven't won a crit since maybe 2003, back when I was a better cat 3 than ever as a cat 2.  I have a good sprint, and frankly it wasn't a difficult race (hell, its only a training series).  For what its worth, i feel good about. And feeling good is what the kids want these days, right?

School is both good and disappointing. I'm pretty consistently let down by the professors casual style, tangential wanderings and poor performance.  I've been talking about it alot, thinking about it alot. Am i too critical?  Is this simply the style of design school?  No doubt I'm learning, but as a paying consumer of a product, I have an expectation that class will start on time (rare) professors won't feel the need to answer phones during class (often) they provide feedback (somewhat rare).   So i'm going to put together a presentation entitled "My biggest purchase: SCAD ID MFA."  My feeling is that they aren't applying service design to themselves intrisically, which has created unproductive traits within the culture of the department.

I'm looking for a summer job. Do you have a telecommuting gig that needs filled?

I'll be selling some frames:
1. brand new super six frame + (used) fork/headset, size 56. white.  awesome bike
2. Taurine, 2008 carbon hardtail, size large. probably with the lefty fork, headset and stem.

I guess it's the start of a 'bucket' list. Why not a box or a barrel or an fancy Alessi container list? I definitely want to ride the Paris-Roubaix course in its entirety in one day, preferably with some good buddies. And ride L'Alp Duez and that wicked steep bitch that's in the Vuelta.  And skydive and own a camp or cabin. Have a few kids, visit Iceland and see the aurura borealis from high latitudes.  Ride across the country on my bike, ski in South America during our summer and maybe make it to one of my friend's or relative's weddings.  


Tomorrow 


The year I move away from everyone and live on gov't subsidies everyone I know gets married. Dang. Hell, I should be in Switzerland right now, happy that Tacha has a nice fellow.  I am happy she's gotten married of course, but it'd be so much cooler to enjoy that feeling by Lake Geneva rather than my backyard in Georgia. Guess I'd better get started on the mosaic gifts.


Willbeless

April Fool

The weather down here is nice. Really nice.  Except on the day of the first NestorCup race this past Tuesday.  Not only was it a TT (worst race type in the world) but 20-30mph winds and only high 40's! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?  I'm sure you can.  Amazingly, even with a whole bag of excuses, i didn't do all that bad.  Oddly enough, my first pedal stroke at the start unleashed a wicked awful clicking/crunching/moaning/groaning from the bottom bracket.  Why does this happen for the first time at the start of a TT?  Is that some karma bullshit?

Afterward I found the cranks wouldn't turn without a lot of force.  These BB30 systems, although light, sure are a lot of maintenance.  Ceramic bearings=complete ripoff (and I have some for sale.  Interested Jay Downs?).

This quarter we're are working on redesigning the Drive-thru experience.  I'm a very rare fast-food diner, so it's pretty interesting to study these.  Full of potential.  It has also sparked my greasy fast food gene. I could eat that junk every day now, but I don't.  Only little debbie products and marshmallows.

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