Friday, November 28, 2008

Happy thanksgiving

Today was a good day. Woke up and made a jello cheesecake for
dinner. Tehn went and put in 3 hours on the bike. It was a good ride
and I got separated from the cal cycling group during a period of
confusion. No worries. I found these wild birds and was thankful
that I would later enjoy some turkey at Brooke and Ryan's place.
Another 10 minutes up a climb and halfway down a wet descent and I
came across Arthur. Arthur is a 60+ year old math prof who still gets
out with the cal team. He crashed after crossing the middle painted
line on the road. Broken collar bone. Ouch.

I gave thanks again that I have my health. Thank you Jesus for all
the blessings you have bestowed upon me and my family.

Long naps and seriously not thinking about school defined the rest of
the day. A blessing indeed.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Some pics

It was a beautiful day yesterday in the bay area. Jan and I went to China Camp to get our dirt riding on. There were a bunch of kids, but we enjoyed our time nonetheless. There was a pretty serious drop that I mustered up the courage to drop. It was a lot steeper than it looks here.

Check out the video in the previous post.



Thursday, November 20, 2008


Two important things to say.

1. Gmail now has themes. Get it. Change your life good!

2. Chris King has come to the table with some serious hotness. For mtn bikes, this is it!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

This is why cyclocross is rad


Yep, those are bubbles (trebon via velonews.com). I am packing on my winter weight, but am super motivated to rip up some collegiate races next year. I cant believe that I will be racing collegiate races at 32. Silly. Oh yeah, exam in 2 hours.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Snow where?

Took glover's advice today and just got out on my bike. What a
blessing indeed. 3 exams in 3 days this week. Oh, and intramural
basketball championships, a CEO spotlight with the north face, a
finance conference, training the street, a dinner with mckinsey
consulting in sf, and an intel entrepreneurers confernce. Phew.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

James Fenimore Cooper


Brombomb the deer-hunter. How rad is it that I am the only person on his distro list outside of his squadron? This guy voted for Obama and loves guns. Weird yet awesome.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Not a medieval torture device

My tool box is now complete. My mom wanted me to give her a Christmas
list, but I ordered the last possible thing I will ever need for my
bike toolbox about a month ago.

This headset race pulled is no joke and will allow me to
professionally yank off races. Why is that important? When you have
a full carbon steerer and wick nasty (high school kid with no bike
wrenching experience) using a screw driver and a hammer to pull off
your race, this investment will save you hundreds of dollars!

Disclaimer: wick nasty is no longer in high school but he would still
try to pull a race with a flat head and hammer. Boo. Also, he claims
that he is riding full sram red now. I have yet to see any pics so
can someone substantiate this tomfoolery? Or will someone send me a
pic?

Still waiting for heroes season 2. Vets day tomorrow!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Ballin

Yep, only in Berkeley. Rims on a prius. Special place indeed

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

This is significant


There are a couple of things on my mind that I have been meaning to post.

Yes, this pic is from velonews.com and I yanked it. But it is significant. The fact is, Lance is back. Is that important? Well, maybe not to you, but it is to me. At the Naval Academy, plebes (freshmen) are required to be able to speak intelligently about 3 newspaper articles per day. Upperclassmen would drill them on the state of the economy, the election, forest fires in morocco, whatever. But sport was always the most interesting. Is it possible for the Titans to continue this streak? Do the phillies really deserve the world championship? Is Lance still going to be competitive? Well, in short answer, I believe that answer is an emphatic yes. He is arguably one of the most complete sportsman ever. Yes, he won the tour 7 times. Most riders do not even understand how important the tour is. Some racers dont even understand how important the tour is. While eddy merckx was a bad ass, Lance won the tour in an environment rife with doping. And he won clean. He is a freak of nature and a great champion. I dont care if you dont like him as a person, I dont care if you dont like his story, I dont care if you hate postal. The facts are facts: he won 7 times and never failed a test.

So why would he risk everything, his entire legacy (and literally millions of dollars) to race again? That answer is simple, he knows how to train his body and he knows that cheaters are being caught. He is not in his prime. He is not the 31 year old machine he once was. But, he's still a machine and he's still the best that ever was. Now that the cheaters are routinely being caught and ex-communicated, Lance knows that he can compete on the highest level.

I am so excited that this great champion is racing again. He's doing it for a greater purpose than any other champion (to promote his cancer survivorship efforts with LAF.org) and stands the most to lose. Jordan came back and sucked. Ali got beat. Lance wont get beat. He'll win and he'll light people up enroute to victory. And thats exciting. Way more entertaining than fwd rates, spot rates, and nominal vs real rates.

Lastly, as the Obama nation paraded the streets of Berkeley last night, I came to a serious realization. Not many people here are willing to hold themselves accountable for their own actions. I was driving on a main street at about 35 mph and there were supporters just running out in the streets in front of cars demanding they stop. What kind of place is this where people has 0 regard for their own safety? I mean, if I happen to be on I-5, I wouldnt run out in the middle of it to tell someone I loved Obama. Thats just me.

And why do people here find it necessary to start every sentence with "so?" Seriously, every person from Berkeley is unable to carry a conversation without using uptalk (seriously annoying cyclical roller coaster of tone) with a flaming disregard for the english language (think valley girl here). Add in the disgusting use of "so" at least 3 times in a sentence and you have identified 88% of the spoken communication devices here. PAINFUL. I would love to see the AirBoss dress down some of these people for lack of comm-brevity on the radio at the carrier.

Brenner, you'll do fine here.

Lastly, big shout out to Craddock Sr for farming out his lady in the name of free socks! Really? Maybe just buy some socks next time. Unless she's cool with the onslaught that you will endure for the next couple of months! Find the contents/purpose of this discussion here: pezcyclingnews.com or just look at this pic:



Monday, November 3, 2008

Grrraaaarrrrgggh

Yep, frats are in full effect now that call leads the pac10 in
football. This is by far the best effort yet.