The lost city of... Detroit . Eh?

This is pretty funny... Funny cuz it's true!

Detroit really is a sort of geographical, social, and political oddity.

The politics are a mess. City council member's seem to care more about their 15 minutes of fame than they do the City.

I'm sure Detroit isn't the only city to have experienced white flight, but ours seems to have left much longer lasting and damaging scars. Getting folks to come back down to the City after hours has been a fight. The "scene" in the D is almost completely underground. There's little in the City to bring shoppers and there money. No big retail stores like Borders or Best Buy at street level to encourage foot traffic around the city. Most of the clubs are in 'seedier' areas, or off the beatin' path (this of course adds to the cool factor, but does nothing for the more mainstream nightlife..) The new Lofts going in are a good start. Those young folks will want places to shop and hang out closer to home. Hopefully some of those amenities will follow!

Geographically, no one knows where to put Detroit. It's kind of an industrial wasteland. No longer the sole hub of the Auto Industry, it's a city without an Identity (thank god we lost Murder Capital)..

Growing up in the City, I've got a lot of affection for Detroit. I hope some day it returns to glory as one of this countries metropolitan cultural centers. But Lord knows it has got a long way to go.

Who the hell do they think they are?!?!

The New York Times and other news sources have reported recently that the Iraqi Insurgents have been making coordinated, purposeful efforts to bring down coalition aircraft, and that these helicopters haven't just been falling out of the sky on their own. Whew, well that's a relief... But, wait... does that mean... THEY'RE SHOOTING AT US?!?! Who the F@#k do they think they are??

Please pardon me. I'm certainly not a very politically minded person, nor would I consider myself a satirist, but when I heard this the other day it just boggled my mind. I mean, aren't we at war? Isn't the point of war to try to cripple the other guy's ability to make war against you? Don't we have one of the world's greatest air forces, well renowned for their ability to stop a fight before it starts? Wouldn't you start there?

Perhaps I'm missing something. Now I'm sure not all of the downed helicopters of late have been of the Apache variety with the big ol' guns and missiles, but they were moving US troops somewhere to do something that was probly going to end up getting insurgents killed or captured, so, is it really news that they we've discovered that they're shooting at us. On purpose. With real weapons.

I'm certainly not condoning the action. I'd rather that no one was over there shooting at anyone else. I guess I shouldn't be shocked that we find it newsworthy that we've managed to turn up REAL DOCUMENTS to prove that the insurgents are targeting US aircraft. It's a hell of a lot better than finding NO PROOF WHAT-SO-EVER of the WMD's that got us into this mess in the first place (that is if you choose to believe the White House's line... We all know Little G just had to show Big G that he wears big boy pants now by finally removing Saddam from power).

So, please, if you have more insight into this than I, feel free to share. Again, I wouldn't put it past myself to have missed some glaringly obvious reason why this is news. I mean, sure, the helicopters could be just falling out of the sky on their own. But, wouldn't that be more remarkable?

Change is good

Ok. So if you've come back to the site a couple times in the last few days you may have noticed that my banner, masthead, or whatever you care to call it has changed. And changed again. And yet again.

I think I've settled on this for a while. I'm really just experimenting until I come up with a template where I can just plug future changes in. I think I'm there. I'm not 100% happy with the current banner, but I'm tired of changing it, so I promise I'll put some real thought into the next one and post only the final version.. ;)

On a separate note, I started an experiment a few weeks ago and it's proving quite interesting. While I know there's no way in hell I could expect to generate any serious revenue from this site, I decided I'd like to see how the whole dealio works for those people that do. So, as I'm sure you noticed, I started running ads on the site. Apparently they rank the most current information higher in terms of ads that are displayed because in my last post I alluded to my blog as a newborn, and the next thing I know all my ads are geared towards motherhood and birthing sites!! Now I know there's a way for me to filter for the sites I want to advertise, but I think that's more of on a ad by ad basis, but we'll see. Of course I'd prefer that the ads remain bike related, but we'll see I guess.

Belated

Wow... almost missed it all together.

One year ago this past Saturday this stupid blog was born. And I must admit, I feel a little irresponsible for bringing this poor little thing into this world. In the past year I've made some mistakes. I've neglected it on occasion. I've failed to give it direction. In fact, it's very conception was just meant to be used to better my racing. How very shameful...

But now it's hear, and like all struggling young bloggers, I'm doing my best to keep it alive.

So to commemorate this 1st birthday (and perhaps to better illustrate my point about it's lack of direction) I've chosen a new title and created a new banner to go with it. Originally (as I've said before) I envisioned this blog as simply a means to track my training and racing progress. But I've kind of been bitten by the blogging bug. I like the idea of having a place to expound on an event or thought that occurs during the day (perhaps this explains why days go by between posts... ) The title and description of the blog became increasingly inapt to the content, so they had to go. I like how some people change their header/marquee/masthead on a regular basis, keeping things fresh. However, given the considerable hangover from the brain wrangling I had to do to come up with this new title, I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge. And I sure don't have the time to create new graphics all the time. But, I may attempt to change it up once or twice a year, so stay tuned.

So, hope you like the slightly new look. A whole template re-do may be in order as well. And, really, I'm not quite done with the header. It needs some color. So check back often!

bloggers

What makes great bloggers?

I'm not exactly a follower of blogs, except for those written by my friends. But I know that some people follow the blogs of complete strangers as religiously as they would their favorite sitcom.

Is it the sense of humor? Variety of content? Consistent updating? Pictures? I guess it depends on the reader. But since I lack all of the above, I can see why I have few readers ;)

I've never fancied myself much of a writer. I pretty much feel foolish anytime I put my thoughts down on paper (so to speak). This blog was really never intended to be read by anyone but me. It was going to be a journal of how I felt after training/racing to try to better track my eating and training practices to improve my consistency on race day.

Then I got a stats tracker, you know, for fun. And now I'm wondering what I could do to increase my readership. I dunno. Is it vanity? Is it just an experiment in manipulating the world around me? It sure ain't for lack of better things to do with my time.

I think what I really need is for spring to get here so I can start riding all the time again and write about that!

Holy Crap

I have no words for what the last 5 days or so have been like. It's been busy, miserable, painfull... ok, so I lied about the no words bit.

Without getting into too much detail about work matters, lets just say that if shit rolls downhill, then someone up there just took a massive dump! I know my experience isn't unique, but some idiots went and put out a crappy document, didn't make sure that there was support available for the procedures outlined in the document, worded it as though their 3rd grader had written it, and then didn't bother to let us (you know, the ones who were gonna catch hell when the fit hit the shan) that it was even being released! So we've been playing catchup for the past 5 days. And they keep piling on.

The only respite was this weekend when I get to escape to my part time job teaching snowboarding at Pine Knob. It was a pretty good weekend. Made some decent money. Then, in the waning hours Sunday, as I was practicing my switch riding on the quarter mile run, I got a little laze and caught my heel edge. I went down HARD!! There was a moment when I was sure I'd broke something. Turns out the only serious injury was too my pride. And it made returning to work Monday no fun either. To add insult to injury (literally) half our systems went down Monday morning (again, due to a planed network change that no one bothered to inform us of) which required getting up from my desk all day. Sitting was the only thing that felt good. Getting up and down did not make me happy..

And to top it all off, I may have lost a good friend forever. I'm still a little in shock over that.

I hate February...

Baby it's cold outside!

I should have my head examined.

I got up this morning and gathered all my riding clothes for tonight's WRCS#34. Somehow it has yet to register that temps are in the negative number BEFORE wind-chill is factored in. I was almost saved by the fact that some of my clothes were still in the washer, but it was all the lycra stuff that could be dried in a few minutes in the drier... So I'm still in.

In preparation, I finally picked up one of these. It makes me look like a ninja. Would a ninja ride a pink bike? A really fast one would.

Last night was Super Bowl XLI. Went to my buddy Mike's house to watch the game with about 40 or so other people on his 120" diag. HD Projection TV! I was generally rooting for the Bears b/c Brian Griese (Michigan Alum) is the backup QB, and because they were the underdogs. Things were looking great only 14 seconds in when the Bears ran back the opening kickoff for a TD, but the Colts won out in the end. It came down to the more solid, consistent QB'ing of Peyton Manning. But it's all good. The food and drink was good, and the company was excellent. The game was just background noise.

So, this morning I'm back at work, exhausted, after another busy weekend of snowboarding, house cleaning, and partying. Hope y'all had good weekends too!

TIVO brain.

I think I've discovered the major drawback of my beloved TIVO.


I've always had a slight tetch of the ADD. For this reason, TIVO has been a god send while trying to get scores that scroll across the bottom of the screen, or weather or traffic updates. And for sports, being able to control my own replays is awesome. Then of course the ease of recording entire series of shows, and then skipping right past the commercials... The list goes on and on.

But I'm discovering a disturbing side effect (at least as far as I can tell, I've not done any in-depth scientific testing on this or anything.) My ADD is getting WORSE. It seems I'm constantly tuning out that important detail (date, time, plot line, etc...) while listening to NPR in the morning, and I'm totally flummoxed when I realize I can't just rewind any old TV cuz I stopped paying attention for the last couple minutes! It even is starting to creep into my personal conversations!! Damn you TIVO!!

So, if I should suddenly whip out a remote and try to rewind you the next time we speek, blame TIVO.

Death by....

...1,000 electrocutions!

I think most people experience and increase in electrostatic shocks in the winter. Something about the dry air, etc... But I'm really beginning to think I'm a distant cousin of Powder...

I can get a shock off of anything. If I pass too close to the metal corner beads that they use to protect corners made of drywall, I'll get a shock (note I said pass closely, not touch..) I commonly get shocked as I put my hands under the faucet, not from the metal faucet, but the stream of water. There's a bare metal spot on the edge of my desk. If I rest my bare arm on it and move my feet, I'll feel a continuous current from my arm to the desk. I've been shocked in my ear from the telephone handset. And the piece de resistance? I've been shocked by a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!!

You might thing i'm making this stuff up. I WISH.

I used to receive such strong shocks from my last car as I went to close the door (that car had cloth seats) that I developed an avoidance to touching the car door. My hand would actually involuntarily recoil as I reached to close the door!

My current nemesis is the printer at work. It's very Office Space. But instead of "PC Load letter", this damn thing is trying to kill me, one shock at a time. Pretty soon I'll be using one of those grabber things to retrieve my print jobs! Gosh I love this place...

Beat up!

Man. I'm wrecked! Ray's will take it out of you... I managed to keep the rubber side down, for the most part, but just the riding will leave me sore tomorrow. That and the face plant I took in the foam pit...

Bryan, Adam, and I met at Crispy's place this morning around 8am. We pilled in the F-150 and headed south. A short drive and we were pulling into the lot behind Ray's. The guys gave me a tour starting on the Gary Fisher XC course. We moved on to the Sport Course, pretty cool, but rough in my 36/16 gear on the Loki.

Next was the Expert area. This is, of course, where everyone hangs out. Tons of lines for stunt riding, such as a double teeter-tooter, an elevator, and skinnies galore.

Also off the Expert area is the rhythm jump section. Crispy and I had decided to devote a good portion of the day to learning to jump. This was the place to do it. I had a blast. The only jump I was able to clear and land on the tranny was the one comming off the Red Bull wall ride (see below), simply b/c I was able to get enough speed off the wall. I'll do better next time!

We rode until about 7pm. By then either our bikes or bodies or both had quite, so we started for home. 4 Chicken Grilled Stuffed Burritos, a lemonade, a root beer, and one bitchy-ass taco bell drive thru girl later, and we were on the road. Thanks, Crispy, for drivin'!!

Here's some pics from the day:


Ok. I'm going to bed now.

41-14

Boo-yah!

82 yards of OSU offense?!?!?
1 offensive TD?
This was a bona-fide blowout!

Any football season that ends with cute little kids in OSU garb crying on national TV is a good one!

Go Gators!!

F*ck OSU!!!

Go Gators!! 15 more minutes till utter Ohio disappointment.. The second best way for the college football season to end!!! :D

You can never go home...

Today my folks signed papers on the sale of the house that I grew up in. I was a little surprised at my reaction when the deal was finally done. It helps that the house has been pretty much empty for the last two years that it took to sell it, but I was still struck by a moment of sadness as I realized that the place that I knew I could always go home to as I grew up, muddled through college, and ventured out on my own, was gone.

I'm pretty sure I've got some pictures of the house when we still lived there, but I'm not sure where those are. Here are some pictures I took after most of the stuff was moved out.

Back to work.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

I had a total of 10 days off over the holidays. I got lots of R&R, lots of food, lots of partying, but not much exercise.. :(

But it's a new year. Time to start fresh yet again!! The first step, is to get my XC bike ready to go for training. I can't stand riding the trainer, so I'll need a bike I can ride outside.... this is going to be it..


Over the break I wasn't a total loss.. I did get several very fun urban rides in. I'm getting pretty accustomed to the Loki, and riding on flats. I'm able to get a pretty good hop, drops of a few feet, and I'm working on my manual. I never did make it too Ray's over the break. Grrrrr. And I never did get a good pic of my Loki up. Here it is...



Notice the same red rims in both pics? I'm lookin' to build a new set of wheels. All Black, for the P.U.S.S. As soon as I get the money. So, like, after racing season... :P

Perhaps in a later post I'll detail my New year's resolutions.. Any suggestions?

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas Day!!

This was a very different Christmas. This was the first Christmas since my Grandma passed. And my folks almost have the house sold, and stayed the night with friends. So Christmas got a late start and there was nowhere to be after. I spent the day in my PJ's. Lazy, yes. (oh, and in case any of my competition is reading, this is just the calm before the storm, baby!)

But all in all it was a good day. I got a lot of great stuff, including this...

So now I'm itchin' to build up the Bianchi. But I have some freestylin' yet to do down at Ray's this winter. I also got a taste of some hang time this weekend while ridin' the jump bike around a park in RO. I likey. So the XC bike will wait just a little while longer.

Now I have to hit the sack. I have to work tomorrow. It's a travesty I tells ya!

It's the most crazy time of year

So I find myself bikeless (no xc bike anyway) and I'm not sure I'm all that ready to get out in the cold and the dark anyway. And I'm just chompin' at the bit to get out on the snowboard. This is a rather tenuous time of year. I'm trying to take my lack of activity into account as I ponder that second donut, or that 5th beer.. :D

Don't get me wrong.. I'm not really worried about my weight.. but I did notice a little extra pudge around the waste last year over the winter, and I'd like to avoid that again this year. I'm not looking to lose weight, but I don't wanna put any extra pounds in that I'll have to lose to get faster next year..

This weekend I'll be going through a hiring clinic to become a snowboard instructor at Pine Knob.. I'm thinking it won't be too hard to get the job. I'm good on a board, like teaching, and can be counted on. Bring on the snotty 10 year olds... ;)

Looks like I'll be missing the Hodaddy Holidy Hines Hump. I was looking forward to this ride after hearing about last year's adventures, but between the cold and ice and the distance to get down there, I think I'll be staying home.. Besides, I gotta catch up with some non-biking friends.. they count too... ;)

So that about brings us up to date. Robert's Winter Riding Challenge Series starts soon.. I'm hoping to get a bunch more of those rides in this year. Stay tuned to find out ;)....

Nothing to Report

Not much goin' on here. I was just perusing some new (to me) blogs, and felt like, well, blogging.

Saturday I managed to get out for a lap at PLRA. The weather was pretty nice, and the trail was in great shape, save for a few wet corners. I let myself use the excuse of still having my Iceman gear on to get off and walk part of the 2 mile climb. I'd already pulled out of my cleats once on the bottom of the climb, so after the rocky hairpin, I jumped off and walked a bit. Very liberating. ;)

The rest of the ride was a blast. I'm still amazed at the worlds of difference b/t the aluminum bar and fork I was running on the Hooligan, and the carbon bar and steel fork on the P.U.S.S. It's, as Paula would say, "like butta!"

Saturday night was a little less plesant. However, this has to do with my infantesmal way of dealing with sports losses, and not with the company I was in. Went to a party to watch the UM vs. OSU game. Unfortunately , the UM defence stayed home in A2 this weekend. The first half saw good pressure on OSU's QB, but that was short lived. Being a UM Alum, I get really worked up for this game. I was a real sour puss after the loss, so I left early.

Sunday. Glorious Sunday. I haven't had a "sit around the house" day like Sunday in ages. I was thinking of making my first trip to Ray's, but lacking funds to drive solo, I decided to stay home. Slept late, and spent the day trying to knock out some projects that had been on my list for some time. Unfortunately I didn't get that much accomplished, but I did lay the groundwork for finally getting a website up to display my wedding photography to potential clients and employers. Look for more on that soon!

Well, that's quite a bit to say for a post titled "Nothing to report".. hmmm.. I'll have to work on my titles.

Oh, and those blogs I was reading? They're not bad, check'em out....

Fatmarc
Endurosnob
creepyfriendly
Danielle Musto

soup

in absentia

well, it never fails.

this time of year rolls around, and I say I'm going to stay on the bike, keep up the training, yada yada yada..

I'm lucky to get on the bike twice in a week. Nice days like we had yesterday end up getting relagated to those must do's before the cold really sets in.

so sunday was spent organizing the garage. my folks had dumped a bunch of their stuff in the garage, as they're trying to sell the house.. they got most of it moved to more permanent storage, but some of it was left for me to use. mostly some cabinets to add storage. but for the last several weeks they've sat in the place normally occupied by my car. with the snow just around the corner, that had to change.

so I took advantage of the sun and nice temps to empty the garage, and put things back in some semblance of order. the car is snug in it's home again, and I've got the workings of a nice bike workshop as soon as I get the tools organized and workspaces cleared.

and I guess I don't feel too guilty.. I don't really have a bike to neglect right now, but I want to rock the iceman! so gotta put a few more miles in!!

oops.. there's the 5 o'clock wistle.. I'm outta heeeeeeeerrrree...

Looking for a new home.

I am looking for a new home for my dog Nero.

He's a really great dog. Easy going, though he is a bit of an attention hound. He's great with kids and adults alike. Scratch his ears and he'll be in love forever.

I'm just not able to give him the time and attention he needs. Living alone and with a busy schedule, he spends too much time at home alone.

He's a black Lab. He weighs about 93lbs. Not sure how old he is. I never got his papers from his first owners. I was told he was 4 when i got him a little over a year ago. He looks like he's about 7-9, but has the energy of a 4-5 yr old. He's due for his shots, but is free of any health issues that I'm aware of (just treated an ear infection that seems cleared up).

He really is a great guy, and I hate to give him up, but he deserves better than I can give right now. Please feel free to PM me with any questions, and pass this on to friends and family.

Racer Boy in the making...

Uh ohh...

I got my first heart rate monitor yesterday. Took it right out to Dutton road to put it (and myself :P ) through its paces.

This thing has a whole bunch of bells and whistles that I'll probably never figure out, but it'll be fun to play with, anyway. I'm not sure I've got the mental capacity to figure out max HR, Vo2 max, etc... but I'll give it a shot.. ;) That's what Old Joe is for, right??