How Do I Add This To My Amazon Wishlist?

Oh Right, I'm Supposed To Update This Thing

So here we are with less than two weeks remaining in 2009, and still no Health Care Bill. I'm afraid I'm done with Obama. If it weren't for the fact that he's following the worst President in the history of our Nation, he'd look a lot worse than he does. He's escalating the ridiculous war in Afghanistan, he's caving on Health Care, and he's remarkably quiet on other areas that featured prominently in his campaign.

Being better than an idiot is not good enough, not when so many people worked their asses off to give Democrats the majority they needed to get shit done. Maybe I should keep hoping until I see what happens in Copenhagen, but I'm already pretty sure I'll be disappointed.

Did you realize we've been in Afghanistan longer than WWI and WWII combined?

We have now been fighting in Afghanistan longer than we did in World War I and World War II combined, yet Pentagon officials say the difficulties they face are as great as ever.

Did you know that there are more Independant Contractors (ie Blackwater) in Iraq and Afghanistan than there are US Troops?

In Afghanistan, it's more pronounced, though, Terry, because you have about 68,000 U.S. troops operating alongside a whopping 104,000 contractors. And with the recently announced surge in troops, that number's expect to grow at a one-to-one ratio with U.S. troops. So it's quite stunning, the number of contractors that are currently deployed on the U.S. government payroll.

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Aside from all that, I've got just over two weeks until the first Early Bird Crit. There are a couple cross races left on the schedule, but we'll see whether I choose cross or crits.
It will be fun to do a crit with the power meter, should be very enlightening.

Feeling The Love

FEMINISM CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING, SAY EXPERTS

WOMEN who know their place emit less carbon dioxide than uppity madames with so-called careers, it was confirmed last night.

I was playing this great game, but now when I try to play I get this:

Dear non-danish visitor,
Due to an extremely high amount of traffic "Hit the Bitch" has been limited to only allow users from Denmark.

Which, taken out of context sounds a lot worse than it is.

Power Time

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this. Data from my new Powertap, and a big thanks to Richard for doing such a great job building it.

Seriously

Most of the time I'm willing to be dismissive of the lunatic fringe. I'm pretty sure I'm related to some of them, and outside of talking a bunch of nonsense, they are pretty harmless. But when I read stuff like this:

There’s a new slogan making its way onto car bumpers and across the Internet. It reads simply: "Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8"
A nice sentiment?
Maybe not.
The psalm reads, "Let his days be few; and let another take his office."

and this:

The Republican base is with him though. PPP's newest national survey finds that a 52% majority of GOP voters nationally think that ACORN stole the Presidential election for Barack Obama last year, with only 27% granting that he won it legitimately.

I can't help but despair a little bit for the future of the World. I realize that not everyone can be smart, but the choice to be willfully ignorant in the face of reason is something I hope to never be able to understand. Maybe there needs to be a new kind of intervention. This kind of crap is worse than the folks who wear tinfoil helmets to make sure the aliens can't read their minds. It's worse because the alien fearers are generally harmless, while the god fearers are anything but.

More Stuff About Bikes and Music

Yesterday was the first race in the CXSR series. Cross is turning out to be harder than I expected, and I expected it to be hard. I kind of thought it would be a matter of maximizing my strengths and minimizing my weaknesses, but that really hasn't been the case. For starters, when it comes to cross, I don't have any strengths. The parts that I should be able to go fast on, I end up using as recovery so I don't puke in the middle of the race. I feel like I'm improving in some areas, but so far that isn't translating into better results. Granted, results are about the last thing I should be focusing on, but I'm just competitive that way (which isn't as good as being competitive in the traditional way of trying to win). I am having a lot of fun though, and when I stop worrying about how bad I'm doing, I do realize that I have a good time going to the races and meeting people and just hanging out and having some laughs. I can also tell that I'm getting more comfortable on the bike. Especially when I get back on the road bike. I find I'm riding a lot more with no hands, and descending without braking. So at least there is some progress...


Last weekend I saw Lucero at The Mezzanine. Quite simply, Lucero kicks ass! They are always a good show, and this was one of the better ones. So good in fact, that I didn't mind that it was at The Mezzanine. Monday night, on the other hand, was not good. Airborne Toxic Event was not good, not even good enough to stay for the whole show. I'm sure there are a lot of people that would argue that, since many people seemed to be having a good time, but I thought it sucked. Friday night was Dinosaur Jr., someone I've wanted to see for a long time. They were possibly the most awkward band I've ever seen. When they weren't playing, it was like looking at goldfish flopping around on the floor. Luckily the show consisted of a lot of playing, and it was good. They got a little to "jam-bandy" at the end, but it was still a good show.
Tonight will be Jason Isbell at the Great American Music Hall. One of my favorite performers at my favorite venue, I'm looking forward to it.

Bye Bye October

The horrid time of year known as "Summer" has left the Bay Area. Now we can finally get some enjoyable weather in the City. Fortunately I got to get some good weather in Chicago, and some really nice weather in Texas (too bad it was in Texas). And now I can enjoy the best weather of the year in my hometown, too bad it now gets dark at 5:30, but one victory at a time.

Music has been good. Truckers and Booker T were awesome at the Bluegrass Fest. Last night, Lucero put on a performance to remember at the Mezzanine. Tonight is Airborne Toxic Event, later in the week are Dinosaur Jr and Jason Isbell. Lots to look forward to...

Cyclocross is ridiculously hard. Right on the verge of being too hard to even bother with. I'm not the kind of person that has to always win, but losing sucks ass. Especially as bad as I've been doing. The upside is that it is fun, and it's making a pretty huge difference in my bike handling, so there's hope that I can get better. I'll get a chance to improve this weekend in Santa Rosa.

Track, on the other hand, is the frikkin' bomb! I've known I wanted to get on the track for a while, but the hour to drive to San Jose combined with the tracks' schedule have always been prohibitive. Last week I finally made it down to a "Beginners' Night" and had a lot of fun. There were some thrown together scratch races that I did well in, out of 15 people I was never worse than fourth. Granted these folks weren't all there just to race and all categories were combined... But at this point, my ego will take whatever it can get.

I just saw the verdict came down in the case of the SoCal Doctor who tried to kill some cyclists. Hot Damn, that's some good news.

And lastly let's praise the Onion..


Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck