Weekly List of Hatreds, the Final Installment?
Note: Lately, I've noticed that when I do the WLOH, I start focusing more on the negative things around me than the positive, and I become kind of a shithead. I don't like that. So, despite the therapeutic value of venting to the whole Interwebs, I'm wrapping it up for now. This may or may not be the final installment, based on how life is going. If I do ever bring this back, it'll be a Thursday-scheduled feature, and I'll counterbalance it with a Friday-scheduled recurring post called the Weekly List of Awesome.
So, without further ado, let's run down what might be the last WLOH ever.
- Having WLOH writer's block until Thursday.
- Falling behind the curve on my short story submission plan for 2010. Had been planning on getting six in circulation, have zero so far. Need to get one out in March and one out in April.
- Overdrafts and the ridiculous costs associated with them. This is like the first time in YEARS that this has happened to me. I'm so damn pissed with myself right now.
- That I feel guilty for laughing my ass off at commercials for products I'll never use. Specifically, Old Spice -- I think their new campaign is really funny, but I'll never, ever, not-in-a-million-years use their product. "Don't smell like sunsets and baby powder. Smell like jet fighters and punching." Yes! But not with that branding!
- I used to always double-space between a period and the start of a new sentence, and recently learned that the new black is a single-space. I've been trying to adapt to that, and it's been making a mess of things. Writings include both types of spacing, and the end result is a friggin' mess that I have no desire to go back and clean up. (So what I'm saying is: live with it, dammit.)
Ignite Recap
Ignite was good. I could be a real shit and leave you with just that summary, but why? So much interesting stuff.
As usual, there's some rumbling from people about the noise and the topics and so on. I think the biggest mistake these people are making is that they're operating under the assumption that this is the localized version of TED Talks. And it's pretty clearly not -- the topic list that's presented ahead of time clearly indicates that. Watching last year's videos would be good reinforcement.
Presentations I enjoyed: "Chicks are the New Dicks", and "All I Need to Know About Management I Learned from Ace of Cakes" were both quite good. I also learned about pivot tables in Excel, something I'd been meaning to do for a long time now.
Every year there's a topic that's interesting, but gets drowned out by the crowd because it's more in-line with a TED Talk. In this case, it was "Japanese Gardens in Minnesota: Examples of Sustainability."
Had a great time. Finally met @DJLindJr and @lindsi. Saw @smuggli, @veloveggies, @rribbitz, and @missashe all for the first time in awhile. Also met @rjdanger, @kilgette, and @DerekShaneLowe, all for the first time -- both via Twitter and IRL. And somehow missed @deseraev again.
So yeah, a great time, good conversation, unlocked two Foursquare badges. I think I talked too much at some points. But still. Had an excellent time. Hoping to see some of these people out on the bike, or in other social situations, rather than in the confines of the Bedlam Theater.
Depending on how things go with my side project, I might even present next year.
Your Kids Need Parenting, Not Things
I am frequently irritated by the level to which parents will spoil their children with material things, rather than just giving them some personal attention.
Reading Update
Digging into Karl Schroeder's Queen of Candesce right now. I love the guy's world-building, and Virga is a memorable locale. It's the last of the trio of books I bought at Uncle Hugo's a few weeks ago, and turning into the best of the three.
The others were Edelman's Infoquake and Morgan's Altered Carbon. The former is the first book in the Jump 225 trilogy, and the last one that I'll read. I really disliked this book a great deal. I won't delve into the why, however. Morgan's work was much better, and enjoyable. It felt a little long, but at the same time, I really enjoyed the noir feel of the plotting and writing, and will be picking up Broken Angels in the near future.
Also upcoming is my purchase of S.M. Stirling's By Heresies Distressed -- third book in the Safehold trilogy. Book one was awesome, book two was setting the stage for this one. I expect fireworks.
Also, slow-going, I'm reading The Paterek Manual, which is the mother-lode of framebuilding information.
On the writing side of the house, my re-write of Bubble is going well, and I have a short story ("In the Name of Love") that I'm getting ready to ship off to Strange Horizons.
Weirdest Job Moment Ever
Not sure why I'm thinking about this now, but the weirdest moment I ever had at a job, I was standing in line at an eatery with my boss, who was in his fifties. Public Enemy was on the radio, and I was bobbing my head with the beat while waiting for my food, not really thinking much of the situation...and then right on cue with the music, Bossman busts out with, "Black to the bone my home is your home/But welcome to the Terrordome."
We never spoke of it. It was too surreal for me to bring up in conversation.
Tonight’s Workout
Tonight: E2 ride, 90 minutes. Zones 1 and 2 (endurance), mostly 2. Should be okay, legs are a little heavy/tired from last night. Hoping that vitamin intake, plus the creatine intake last night will help keep the muscle soreness down prior to tomorrow night's next session on the weights.
Weight goal: 175 lbs.
Current: 200 lbs.
Starting Weight: 205 lbs.
Percentage of Goal: 16%
The weight routine is tough, and time consuming. In order, it goes like this:
- 10 minutes of brisk walk/light jog warm-up.
- 10 minutes of stretching.
- Core package: Russian Twist with 10 pound medicine ball, Back Extension with same medicine ball, Crunch (same ball), Reverse Crunch, and the Supine Bridge.
- Legs: squat (strength building) followed by the ball lunge (stability).
- Chest/Shoulders/Back: Bench Press (strength) followed by the seated row (stability).
- Shoulders/Upper Back: Lat Pulldown (strength) followed by the dumbbell shrug (stability).
- Power Building: squat jumps (plyometric, 8 reps, 2 sets).
- 10 minutes of stretching.
- 10 minutes of brisk walk/light jog cool-down.
At Last! Change!
I'm now into Base 1 for my cardio/gym work and the Strength phase of my weightlifting. This means that cross-training for cardio is no longer an option until August or so, when I need to start with the cyclocross prep. It also means adding a new variety of cardio workout, which has been limited to endurance work (E2) and spin-ups (S1). I now get to add single-leg riding (S2) to the mix.
The weight program is also changing. My core muscle package remains much the same, but will change weekly for variety. On the weights, I'm into strength building, with a mix of stability exercises. After all that's done, I have one power-building plyometric exercise -- in this case, squat jumps -- before my cool-down work.
I'm pretty excited about this. Tonight: weights program, followed by 60 minutes of S1 (spin-ups).
In four weeks, cardio moves into Base 2 (more variety!), and eight weeks from today, I move into the power-building phase of my training (more plyometrics stuff, heavier weights/fewer reps, and a lot more pain).
It's coming together nicely. At the end of Base 1, I need to re-run all my testing -- LTHR, CP60, Wingate -- to see how things are coming along. Pretty psyched.
Growing Old
It seems that as I age, more and more of what I write is in list format. This is probably an attempt to save time -- I'm growing older and running out of minutes. Granted, I'm only 37, but still. I seem to be obsessed with maximizing available time.
A few years ago, I tried using the Getting Things Done system. The system has its merits, and tons of adherents, but I seem to do better with just a plain, ordinary checklist with small, finite to-do items, rather than a system with a review process and "50,000-foot views" and that sort of nonsense. Plus, the two best GTD apps out there -- Things ($50) and Things for iPhone ($10) are pricey for what they are. Okay, I can spring $10 for an iPhone app, but $50 for a desktop app? No thanks.
A few months ago, I put Evernote on my iPhone and I'm starting to look at it, finally. I find it especially cool because it's web-based, meaning I can share data across multiple platforms -- I'll be putting the desktop client on my Mac tonight, my netbook once I decided whether to stick with the Hackintosh or go to Ubuntu, and my work PC today. Having one unified source for all this stuff should work nicely.
We'll see. Who knows? I might make my way back to GTD, break down and buy Things (big plus if it's in this year's MacHeist), and try getting all these crazy fucking things in my life under control. Sometimes process helps -- being a former project manager, you'd think I'd know that.
Rambling over.
Weekly List of Hatreds #4
- Buying a book because of the positive reviews only to discover that it's a festering pile of shit that I could have written in my fucking sleep.
- The constant state of being hungry that comes with training for road season. Is this what pregnancy feels like? Seriously, even looking at cat food makes my stomach growl sometimes. And it's not like I'm not eating.
- Being stupid and not getting AppleCare on my first iPhone. (Got it with the new one this week, though.)
- Minor writer's block.
- Smug-ass Prius drivers. I want to cockpunch the lot of you.
- Whomever the marketing communications drone is for one of our local radio stations? Your ads that refer back to the website drive me batshit. Specifically, "Go to our website, call-letters.com, keyword whatever." NOBODY BUT AOL USED "KEYWORD" -- IT DOESN'T REFER TO ANYTHING ANYMORE. When I go to your site what am I supposed to do? Use search? Type in 'call-letters.com/whatever'? Hunt around for a button? Argh. (Okay, this has been bugging me for awhile, the level of vitriol here has built up a bit. I feel better now.)
- That it's constantly freezing in my office.
- Having an idea for an entry on this list, opening up the file, and by the time I get there, the idea has already escaped.
Frostbike 2010 Review
So this past weekend, I hit up Frostbike, which has become a regular thing now, having been a February tradition for three years now. (You can read my 2008 and 2009 reviews.)
The Reynolds RZR wheels were the revelation of the show, really. I was absolutely stunned by these wheels.
A $6K all-carbon wheelset that weighs less than 900g -- FOR THE SET.
Dear god, these wheels were amazing. The lightness was unreal, and the design was fascinating. The three-flange rear hub was a novel solution to the problem of a radially-laced rear wheel -- a third flange on the body of the hub, just inside the drive spokes has four spokes at a 90-degree offset to resist the torsion on the rear wheel. It's a novel setup, and I'm curious about how you'd replace a broken spoke on that internal flange.
The triple-flanged rear hub on the Reynolds RZR.
They're a technological marvel. I can't speak to their ride quality however, because it's February in Minnesota and I only got to look at them on the sales floor. I don't foresee having an opportunity to ride them, either -- I simply don't have the $6000 lying around to buy a pair, and couldn't even swing it with the shop employee pricing program. They'll have to remain an object of lust.
In the first aisle you roll through, was Gu's booth, and eventually, I worked up the nerve to try the Gu Chomps. My trepidation is understandable when you consider the taste-testing that Kate and I did on the competing product, Clif Shot Bloks. That said, however, the Gu Chomps were very tasty. I'm still not entirely sold on the "blocks" format, but Gu has definitely surpassed Clif in this version of energy food.
I also did spend some time looking at Salsa's new titanium offerings and was suitably impressed. Clean welds, much the same styling as their steel brethren. Were I not starting my own framebuilding gig ("ride your own stuff"), I'd seriously consider a La Cruz Ti as my next cyclocross frame.
Ritchey had a small booth going, and were fun to visit. Chatted with the guys there briefly and discovered that they have a program for small framebuilders. Color me stoked! They even have a nifty solution if I was to start doing seat masts (not really).
Edge Composites didn't have anything stunning that they didn't have last year. Talked to them a bit about painting their stuff. Since most of it just has clearcoat, that could be sanded down and used as a base for more color. Good.
Shimano was showing off Di2 again. Nothing huge here, but I still want a Di2 kit. Like the Reynolds wheels, you can file it under "lottery purchase". I did ride it again and was just as impressed as last year.
Campagnolo didn't have anything revelatory, either. Did talk to them about their carbide frame facing kit, which I am going to need and will probably pay out of the ass for.
DZ Nutz and Chamois Butt'r had samples available. DZ Nutz had their chamois creams, which I am going to try, and Chamois Butt'r had a new formula, plus electrode gel for heart rate monitor straps. I'm going to give some of this stuff a try over the course of the coming week.
All in all, not a bad show this year. Looking forward to 2011.
Currently Reading
The Constitution
Tag Cloud
Flickr
More...
Support
Wishlists
Lifestream
-
Ain't nothing more fun than an all-day meeting. Well, maybe being waterboarded. [fontosaurus]
-
RT @dealsplus Hey! Retweet this to win an Apple product in 30 minutes. Don't forget to follow @dealsplus. http://bit.ly/9aq1Su [fontosaurus]
-
I'm at Rainbow Foods - The Quarry (1540 New Brighton Blvd, Minneapolis). [fontosaurus]
-
Checked in at Rainbow Foods - The Quarry
-
I'm at PetSmart - The Quarry (1640 New Brighton Blvd, Minneapolis). [fontosaurus]
-
Checked in at PetSmart - The Quarry
-
Have not updated the blog in a few days. I should rectify that tonight. [fontosaurus]
-
BLTs for dinner tonight, I think. [fontosaurus]
-
I favorited a YouTube video -- Cycle Speedway Euro Club Champs: FINAL http://youtu.be/rKNCoaOsAT4?a [fontosaurus]
-
RT @sveden: Haha, just as I was saying. A letter that makes no census? Minnesota Public Radio http://bit.ly/99ubkr [fontosaurus]
