Updates

This blog is kind of pointless. a couple people i know just trashed theirs or are on their way to, which is completely understandable. I dont have anything relevant to say and i don't write very well, but yet i continue. so here goes more of irrelevant rambling.

Hiking-
Recently did a sunrise hike up Old Rag. Which included not going to bed due to the early nature of our departure. The hike was fun, sun rise was nice. It was a tad cold or i was a bit under dressed for sitting on a peak as short as it may be (3291 ft). Its the best we have around here for summit type of hiking. I'm going to go trail run it a few times here in the coming weeks. a solid 9 mile loop is good for a bit of running. yes, all you cyclist(ie Bert)...running.

Music-
Missed Saul William's visit to DC (again). If anyone is into good pop check out Head Automatica's album Propaganda or their earlier album Decadence know for its single Beating Heart Baby. Its good fun, catchy music. Their earlier album is good for a bit of dancing.

House-
My basement is finally done. and i'm enjoying it. still a lot 'o' bills to pay off.

Cycling-
I keep starting to put in miles only to be derailed by outside forces...Like a semi or the flu (h1n1). I have a solid commute worked out for the journey home in the dark. including a few miles of nice lightly traveled gravel roads (one of the dogs that always barks finally was loose last night and chased me...a little bit of extra fun). I'm working on a morning coffee ride, just need to find people who may be interested. Also, a once a week lunch ride; i have one taker. I'd do anything to ride in the daylight more than 30% of the week.

Movies-
Best couple movies i've seen lately- The Informant and Where the Wild Things Are. The Men Who Stare at Goats was a bit overdone. It played the quirky card a little too much without any sort of positive execution. The Informant is very very good. Best movie i've seen in a while.

What happens when you are the office prankster and ride a bike to work?
Old pictures. but i just found them. they are kind of funny.

My growing team

Despite the fact that 3 of my teammates are a few years shy from being twice my age, we are a pretty close group. Actually, even the age difference between the remaining teammate (Zach) is around a decade older than myself and another decade to the eldest 3 (we have a small team and yes i said "eldest").

Regardless, we all have fun.

After our first event 540 Development Race, which is geared towards Juniors, Women's 3/4, and Men's 4/5, we had some interest in Juniors racing under the 540 name. Reason being, is we had 2 juniors racing with 540 kits. Larry's and John's sons were both in the 11-14 Junior's race. Monday morning, i got an email saying that Larry's older son (13?) had been out on his bike training, doing about 15 miles each day.

Yesterday i got an email saying-
"Luke made himself a "disc" wheel so he can practice Time trials!!!!"
I believe Luke is 11? So that's pretty sick.

w/pictures-

Also, a quick look at Wes Anderson's new film The Fantastic Mr Fox. Yeah i'm pretty excited, even though its stop motion type film. I see no possible loss in quality despite the different medium.
And since we're on the topic of movies Terrence Malick's Tree of Life is slated for release sometime in 2010, despite already going through post-production...whatever, it will be worth the wait.

Silly netflix

I recently returned the movie Marley & Me to netflix. And while having not rated the movie, i logged onto my account to see that they were asking me to rate it so they can recommend two movies i would like depending on my rating.

i would give Marley & Me 3 stars. its decent at best...enjoyable.

So netflix pondered for a moment and searched its database in its entirety, then decided that having given 3 stars to Marley & Me that i would really enjoy the movies Young @ Heart and Synecdoche, New York.

WHAT? How does that make sense? No offense to Marley & Me, but those are two quality movies. Not sure how they justify this conclusion.

Nice Day

Woke up at 630 yesterday (Saturday). Big winds (lots of head winds...). 41 degrees. 1 gear. 70 miles. 3hrs 50mins.

it was a nice day.

Saw Frost/Nixon yesterday night after going to PF Chang's with my wife. good movie good food.

Red Tacks

All signs pointed back towards bed this morning...or at the very least taking the short route to work. It was just one of those mornings. I was tired, my legs were sore, its was an enjoyable 13 degrees outside, i was dragging and procrastinating. But despite all that, in my quest to be a family of 1 motor vehicle, i hopped on my bike. Shortly there after i was cruising along just dandy or as dandy as you can be in 13 degree weather on a bike, and i hear *clunk* *clunk* *clunk*. So i decided to figure out what the hell is making that noise. I stop and spin my back wheel to discover a nice little red tack. a few thought went through my mind at that moment, "maybe i can still ride...no probably not", "maybe i can take it out and nothing will"...pppsssssss....yeah. that didn't work, nice thought though. This was my first test of changing a tube on the road....ever. Its my 3rd flat ever too. I think i have a bit of luck on my side. But, regardless of all that, i did it. I changed the flat and pressed on. I was proud of myself.

More doping comes through the headlines...
I hope they make some progress with Operation Puerto.

The Oscar nods are posted. a few things that have to happen or i won't watch the Oscars again...

• Slumdog wins both best picture and director
• Rourke wins best actor
• Ledger wins support actor
• Wall-E animated feature
• Wall-E or Slumdog win original score

a few predictions and great expectations.

Go Cardinals!

Frozen Beards and Light Grenades

While this whole week I've been complaining about the wicked cold, this morning i experienced the worst of it. I checked online when i left to get a brief idea of just how cold it was outside, 10 F. I was later told my fellow commuter that there was a windchill of below 0...ouch. Luckily 90% of my hiking is done in the dead of winter so i have winter performance gear which i was able to layer up with this morning in combination with my cycling clothes. Despite the extra clothes my face remained bare (save a little beard) there for rendering my face defenseless against the cold...the result looked like this:
I did put Vaseline on my face before i left hence the nice glistening reflection my face has. But i honestly could feel much and every hair follicle was frozen to its surrounding neighbors. Also unfortunately any precipitation that left my mouth (or nose) became immediately frozen to my facial hair leaving me looking like i have rabies. The Vaseline also froze moments after i left my house, which was a weird feeling.

The ride itself was kind of difficult but nothing over bearing.

I visited the library for another round of free CDs and DVDs. I picked up Incubus's Light Grenades which is slightly disappointing. I'm happy i didn't go to purchase it. I grew up a huge incubus fan and from time to time i still enjoy some of their music, but Light Grenades seems to be the culmination of bad ideas and wasted talent, or it could be just poor song writing. Its not even enjoyable pop.

The movie selection wasn't that great either, but they did have classics such as Jurassic Park and Forest Gump. Jurassic Park is the first movie i ever remember watching in theaters and i saw it in an IMAX theater. I loved it so much that when it came to television a year or two later i recorded on a VHS and promptly watched it everyday for an extended period of my life (i was home schooled so i had tons of time for it). I also picked up Chicago and Miracle...and like Darryl said Chicago is a joke, i couldn't believe it won 6 Academy Awards...are people insane?

Winter Weath III: Black Ice

I hit 40mph behind a bus going uphill. Up till that moment i had only gotten my track bike up to 35mph. It was pretty sick. All in all i had a decent ride today. I kind of fried myself about halfway through but luckily the rest of the way was fairly in my favor, save one short climb a little less than two miles from the end.

The only problem this morning was it was just below freezing and the past two days it has been raining non stop, so the roads were slick. I was pretty careful but i did slip around a couple of times. Lots of black ice everywhere.

My legs are working again, working very well in fact. So i think i'm just going to maintain everything I'm doing at this point. I have a feeling it was vitamins, though. I need to carefully read those ingredients.

There is a joke amongst some of my friends about Michael Bay films, which include:

• Armageddon
  
• Transformers
• Bad Boys 1 and 2
• The Island
• The Rock
• Pearl Harbor

If you paid attention in your High School English class then you know a plot line or story line goes something like this:
And well the joke is, a Michael Bay movie goes like this:
Enough said.

Sabrina, you should definitely buy the new TV on the Radio album. Specially if you enjoy ANY of their other music at all.

Welcome Back...and just in time.

Cycling
I finally had a nice ride this morning. It was the first time in a long time that i haven't felt like I'm getting on the bike for the first time ever. I added a couple extra turns in my usual route to try and jump up the millage without making a journey down roads i typically avoid. Only they are small gains that really equate to an extra mile or two unfortunately. I'll figure it out soon enough...
Music Review
I picked up TV on the Radio's newest album this afternoon. I attempted to purchase it on Half.com or Amazon.com but both seemed to only save me a small hand full of change and subsequently i would have to wait 3-5 business days or something along those lines. That trade off didn't seem worth it. So i hitched a ride to Bestbuy on my lunch break and purchased it the old fashion way...electronic gift cards. Anyway, onwards to the music portion...The album is very solid. Darryl attempted to allow me to hear it once on our way to Fountainhead MTB Park, but if you know Darryl, you also know he has music ADD with his i-pod. So i heard about 1/3 of a one song and then on to something else.
Again, the album is solid. I won't pronounce them the best new thing or the future of music, or whatever else i deemed them after Return to Cookie Mountain, but i will say they make great music consistently, and its consistently interesting.
Movies
I finished watching Burn After Reading, and despite all that i heard, i enjoyed it immensely. So much so, i would watch it again, probably a few times. It was quite hysterical in a Coen Brother's way. I think the problem most people have with the movie is their perception of what it was supposed to be...Trailers seem to, at times, give people the wrong impression of how a film is supposed to be (i.e. Funny, Sad, Action Packed, etc.).
Take for example: Alien vs. Predator
Most people who have seen the trailer, thought maybe this was an action packed sci-fi thriller, but if you saw the movie you would know that it is quite the opposite...its a comedy. I was under the impression my friends were under the influence when they asked me to go see it with them, not understanding the comedic genius i was about to witness. Upon laughing loudly and hearing the entire theater erupting in the same laughter i realized the trailer had misconstrued what this film really was about.
While this may not have been the best comparison for Burn After Reading's trailer misinterpretation, it will have to suffice. I think people just forget that its a Coen Brother's film. Characters no matter the actor playing them, or how invested you are into certain character, they are all expendable and we'll leave it at that. The ending of the film just makes it that much better. I'd say probably one of their best endings.

Interpol, TV on the Radio, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Gorillaz and Q and Not U.
Burn After Reading, No Country For Old Men, Bottle Rocket, Snatch

Winter Weather

Holidays are over thankfully

Wednesday's ride was great. I rode in at 630 am in very calm weather. Only to be criticized by my co-workers (like most days) for my "stupidity" on riding in that day, since we were supposed to have wind gusts up to 50mph. Well those gusts happened along with a constant wicked strong wind. I left the bike shop after dropping by for a couple hours of inventory. I got honked at twice followed by a nice guy who waved at me. I chatted with him at the light about idiots that drive cars, commuting, the bike shop, etc. I proceeded on with a gay wave as i passed the guy who honked at me.

I could tell it was super windy, due to the fact that every once in a while i would almost get blown all the way across the lane. Unfortunately i was about to turn straight into the wind. When i did, my little computer started to whimper. I think it may have been embarrassed to be on my bike? Regardless i pressed on. I had noticed earlier some flurries had started to appear but thus far in NOVA we have yet to see some actual snow that has actually stuck around for a while. Well as i continued trudging along the flurry's population grew into almost full on snow. At that moment feeling very Andy Hampsten-esque, so i decided to extend my ride farther. I also dropped by Blockbuster to pick up a movie. Right after that i turned with the wind and my pace increased dramatically.

Into the wind: 8.5mph-10mph (tons'o'effort)
With the wind: 25mph-30mph (no effort)

It was fun.
The movie i got at Blockbuster was Burn After Reading. Thursday morning/afternoon, my wife and i started to watch it. I had heard from many people that this movie sucked, which i took with a grain of salt only because it is by the Cohen Brothers who are notorious for making great movies that a lot of people don't "get" (not saying I do "get" it, but i enjoy their movies none-the-less). In this case, so far I've thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but I've only seen 1/3 of it.

Yesterday my dad and i kept our unusual streak for seeing non-typical Father-Son movies. When i say Father-Son Movies, i think things such as (recent ones) Quantum of Solace, Valkyrie, or (past) Die Hard, The Incredible Hulk, etc. But my dad and i typically change our minds right before we go in and see something else entirely...the (short) list goes as follows in chronological order:

1. Hotel Rwanda
2. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
3. Slumdog Millionaire

While you may say,"that's not so unusual." I'd respond, "Why, yes. Yes it is." Generally speaking my Dad isn't very emotional, nor does he typically enjoy quirky movies. So that makes the first two odd, but then Slumdog Millionaire i guess is just so good that anyone can enjoy it. For the record...i cried the entire way through Hotel Rwanda, next to someone who i don't think I've ever seen a tear form.
Slumdog Millionaire is definitely good....Lives up to the hype? That's up to you.

Radiohead is the best.

Da Da da DAAAAAAAA

Before:
After:
The changes are pretty obvious...Handlebars and brakes. I also replaced the tires with Specialized Armadillo's, i added Light and Motion Headlight and a crazy blinky tail-light.
I need to work on it a little bit. I work at the bike shop Saturday, so I'll have a bit of time then.

I found a new love...
As some of you know, I'm an unofficial Netflix promoter, a Redbox whore, and from time to time in moments of desperation i visit blockbuster and keep the movie until they threaten my credit card with an overpriced amount in exchange. Well thanks to Darryl I've discovered borrowing movies from the local library which has a decent selection. Last night they didn't have any good movies in, BUT they had some decent CD's in...one of which was Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine:
With the Library being void of a good selection at that time i proceeded over to the nearest redbox and picked up Traitor, staring Don Cheadle and Guy Pierce among others. Rottentomatoes appears to be always correct in their "Consensus" which stated:

Despite another reliable performance from Don Cheadle, Traitor suffers from too many cliches and an unfocused narrative.

I would say that's nearly 100% true of Traitor.