Some kind of wonderful

The last of John Hughes' teen dramas from the 80's. I was watching it while waiting for the UPS driver to drive by. She usually comes down my street around 5:30 or 6:00 and is happy to pick up packages as she passes by. Saves me a trip to the UPS store. Anyway, back to the movie. Is it me, or did Eric Stoltz wear extra eyeliner and blush for his role? - ostensibly to show off his dreamy eyes. And he had the biggest hair in a big hair movie. What's up with that? Any more estrogen, and I'd swear he had a vagina. Now, Mary Stuart Masterson as Watts was a complete hottie. She was like a latter day Emma Peel with her chauffeur's outfit and red fringe driving gloves. And how can you forget the best line from the film, "I'd rather be with someone for the wrong reasons then alone for the right." Nice. For the remake of the movie, I understand Watts will be a fixie girl. And instead of the red gloves, she'll sport knuckle tattoos that read BAAD ASSS (in an old English-ish font, of course). I can't wait.

Ok, Happy New Year. And I mean it this time.

Bonestock

Built up my Kelly recently. Took it out for its maiden voyage this morning. A little shake-down cruise on my usual Far West - Spicewood Springs loop. Steel OS Platinum frame with Campy Centaur. The gruppo is a mix of 2006 shifters, hubs and front derailleur with 2008 carbon rear derailleur and skeleton brakes. The 12-25 cassette is Chorus, and the cranks are FSA SLK compacts. The green Michelin Axials are an homage to Chris. Initial impression - the bike rides really well. The shifting is a little slower than on my IF, but certainly within my tolerances. Bike feels pretty responsive too. For you weight weenies, the bike weighs 19 lbs with pedals. I could easily shave a pound or more off with lighter components, but what's the point? It feels good as is...

Bite my lip and close my eyes...

Back from East Texas. Spent xmas with Kate's family in Longview. In case you're unfamiliar, Longview is known for producing men with broad smiles, and for it's hot Taiwanese women. Overall, a nice time. We made dinner (turkey and all the fixin's), and I also played round two of 20 questions with Kate's mom. Always entertaining.

Hope everyone has a happy new year.

A Long December

A melancholy soundtrack for the solitary drive back to Austin from Houston. Repeating 29 times as xmas eve transitioned into xmas day. I know, I counted.

I'm too hopped up on caffeine to sleep, but I guess I should.

Nah, nah, nah, nah...

Yeah... yeah... yeah... yeah...

Definitely, Maybe

I'm a sucker for romantic comedies. Watched Definitely, Maybe tonight while eating dinner and wrapping presents. If you haven't seen it, it stars Ryan Reynolds and a number of leading ladies. Reynolds sure has come a long way from his Van Wilder days. He kind of reminds me of a more accessible Will Ferrell. Maybe accessible is an unfair term. Anyway, it's a decent movie, told in a Princess Bride kind of way, albeit without Fezzik and the annoying Buttercup.

In one scene in the film, they're making tea using a tea kettle. It made me nostalgic for my old Alessi Michel Graves kettle, the one with the bird whistle that chirps when the water boils. It's an excellent kettle. Nowadays, I use one of those instant hot water dispensers, like the one they have at my office. It's quick, efficient, and de-chlorinates, but kinda soulless. Much like the difference between CDs and records.

The tea was appealing because I was making my way through a huge brick of baked salmon and could have used something to wash it down. I had pulled 3 lbs of Alaskan salmon out of the freezer Sunday night for dinner, but didn't end up using it. Rather than re-freezing it today, I decided to cook the whole thing up. In case you've never purchased 3 lbs of salmon, it's a lot of fish, probably enough to feed 7 or 8 people. I baked half of the fillet with butter, Italian bread crumbs and sea salt. The other half I used a cracked pepper marinade. After 8 ounces of the breaded version I was done. It was good. I'll report back on the marinated version another day.

I also spent much of the day rooting through my storage shed looking for a Shimano down tube shifter. It took an hour, but I was victorious. And look what else I also managed to find in the hay stack. Yes, it's a set of Precision Billet ProTwist shifters from the mid-90's. There were a number of indy derailleur manufacturers back then, but I believe Precision Billet was the only one brave enough to make their own shifter. Damn, these things are sexy! They are CNC nirvana. I'm sure I'll get another IM telling me what a bike dorque I am, but I'll chance that. You know, these things are selling for over $300 on eBay these days. Crazy to imagine, considering you couldn't give these things away just a few short years ago.

Btw, my vacation officially started today. Woohoo!

No Rain, Part 2

Wasn't feeling well, so I went to bed at 9:00 last night... which means I can't sleep past 5:00 this morning.

Decided to run Genius againt Blind Melon's No Rain for some tunes while I work around the house.

I have to say this is the best 'like' list yet. Definitely Rob Gordon worthy. Can't really sum up the feeing in just 10 songs, so I'll give you the top 30. Enjoy.

No Rain: Blind Melon
Two Princes: Spin Doctors
Black Hole Sun: Soundgarden
Linger: The Cranberries
Basket Case: Green Day
Today: Smashing Pumpkins
You Oughta Know: Alanis Morissette
Blister in the Sun: Violent Femmes
Man In The Box: Alice in Chains
Just A Girl: No Doubt
Been Caught Stealin: Jane's Addiction
Give It Away: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Follow You Down: Gin Blossoms
Hash Pipe: Weezer
One Headlight: The Wallflowers
Zombie: Cranberries
Solsbury Hill: Peter Gabriel
Girl: Beck
Runaway Train: Soul Asylum
1979: The Smashing Pumpkins
Just What I Needed: The Cars
Better Man: Pearl Jam
Friday I'm In Love: The Cure
Come As You Are: Nirvana
Pigs In Zen: Jane's Addiction
Say It Aint So: Weezer
Interstate Love Song: Stone Temple Pilots
Should I Stay or Should I Go: The Clash
Everybody Hurts: R.E.M.
Loser: Beck

No Rain

by = Blind Melon. 3.39 = length of song. 17 = times I heard it on the 7 mile loop around Town Lake this morning.

I'll let you calculate the pace.

Actually, I was hoping for a little rain, but all I got was some mist towards the end of the run.

Crazy

Look what showed up with my new phone books. Yes, a digital copy of the phone books on a cd. I know for a fact that SBC and AT&T have produced cd versions of their phone books since at least 2001. In years past I used to have to call them to request one.

<soapbox>They're quite handy and save a bunch of trees. The question for me is why it took so long for them to advertise the cd to the general public (btw, the directory listings are also available on the internet). The cds probably cost pennies to produce. Weigh that against the cost of printing and distributing a hardcopy, and it seems like a no-brainer to me. Yes, there will always be people who do not own a computer or prefer the tactile feel of a hard copy, but imagine the forests they could save.</soapbox>

Also, I went running for the first time in a couple of months this morning. Soundtrack: Crazy by Gnarles Barkley (Charles' younger and hipper brother).

Stressful Reading

The publisher recently sent us their edits for the Pipe Stress Engineering book my Dad and I are writing. Been reading it before bed this week. It's pretty good. I'm getting to the exciting part where the protagonist anti-hero encounters the antagonist, charges him with violating Section VIII code, thus setting up the cliff-hanger that will be patly resolved in the final chapter. Seriously, it's good. Stay tuned for more.

Harumph.

I had lunch with June today. Part of my 'putting the X back in Xmas' campaign. It was good to catch up. She's still a lawyer, still in Houston, and still in a band. What is surprising is that she really gets domestic during the holidays, what with cooking up turkeys with all the trimmings and such. This week she made gingerbread men. Of the couple I received, I believe the frowning one is suppose to be me - because I used to say 'harumph' a lot.

Bueno Suerte

Dustin leaves for his bike ride to Houston tomorrow (via College Station). Wish I could say it sounds like fun, but I can't. Regardless, have a good trip and say hi to the Dixie Chicken for me.

I was watching The Replacements tonight while I was stripping down my Curtlo for eBay. Am I crazy, or was that Keanu Reeves finest role? He was all dark and serious - much like his Neo character in the Matrix trilogy, but in a football uniform. The Replacements also featured a couple of excellent songs, I Will Survive and Heroes (natch). Speaking of Reeves, have you seen him in The Lake House? It sucked. And so did he. Don't get me wrong, he was conflicted and brooding in that film also - but playing an architect as a romantic lead? Who are they kidding.

Btw, I bought the Curtlo because it had 2 things, Cook Bros Racing crank arm bolt covers and Avid Arch Supreme brakes - the best V-Brakes ever made. Seriously, the Supremes are CNC goodness, totally adjustable, rebuildable and feature sealed bearings for the pivots. Gives me chills just thinking about them

Genius

New-ish from Apple. You pick a song and Genius mines your iTunes library for the top 100 songs that match it. I guess based on how other people group the song in their playlists - kinda like a nearest neighbor data-mining algorithm. Been playing with it lately. Tonight, I picked True Faith by New Order. The top 10 out of 100 that Genius matched it with:

True Faith: New Order
Policy Of Truth: Depeche Mode
Love Song: The Cure
Eyes Without A Face: Billy Idol
Rock the Casbah: The Clash
Once in a Lifetime: Talking Heads
I Melt With You: Modern English
Modern Love: David Bowie
Roam: The B-52's
Friday I'm In Love: The Cure
Missing: Everything But The Girl

I picked Many Shades of Black, Genius picked:

Many Shades Of Black: The Raconteurs
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground: The White Stripes
Walken: Wilco
Australia: The Shins
Incinerate: Sonic Youth
Dope Nose: Weezer
The Bends: Radiohead
Old Yellow Bricks: Arctic Monkeys
Cellphone's Dead: Beck
Slow Night, So Long: Kings Of Leon
Supermassive Black Hole: Muse

Fat Chance

I spend more than my fair share of time on eBay. It helps me trend where bike prices are heading. Yesterday, I came across one of the best ads I've seen in a long time. It's for a 1987 Vintage Fat Chance Wicked Team bike (that's a mouthful). The link to the ad is here. In case it goes away, I'm highlighting the pertinent passages below:

In response to other forum members who said it was a shame I was not describing the bike more and doing a poor job of "selling" it, I will now try to placate them with a flurry of unnecessary B.S.....The paint was lovingly applied by the master paintsmiths at D+D for Fat City. It glows like magic with little tiny sparkles that catch the eye in a way that can almost make you feel like you are swimming in pools of fairy dust. The rare and super special box style team fork has extra welded gussets on the inner blades that make this fork strong enough to hold up the Empire State building. The Salsa roller stem is personalized too, and exudes mystical powers when looked at. The frame is meticulously welded of special chromoly that is harvested from mines in the Amazon. It takes an average of 14 years to harvest enough Chrome and Moly to mix together to create the tubing for one frameset. Oh, and did I mention riding this bike cures cancer? The bike is so pristine since it was hermetically sealed in silk and kept in isolation on the space station for the past 30 years. I only rode it once to cure my prostate cancer, and I must say, now that I am cancer free I am enjoying a much better sex life. This spectacular bike will actually increase the size of that certain part of the male anatomy! I was thinking of donating it to President Elect Obama's cabinet since it is purported that this frame is the key to World peace, and that the warm glow of its paint was seen by three wise men 2000 years ago over a manger in Bethlehem. Merry Christmas.

Ho, Ho, Ho.

Party Like It's 1999

Retail gas prices keep falling. It's crazy. I paid $1.45 for regular unleaded when I filled up yesterday. This morning I saw $1.39 at Conoco. That's like 1999 prices. At this rate, I would be a fool for not buying that new Hummer after all. The only question that remains is H1 or H2? The H3 is for wussies. I'm a purist, so I'm thinking H1.

Speaking of car stuff, I just spent bushels of money on my convertible. It went in for an oil change and malfunctioning horn recently. You would think the horn would be covered under warranty, but it wasn't. $1100 later, I have a car that looks the same as it did the day it went in for service. However, the next day, I lowered my top and the rear window rips. $1200 later I have a new convertible top. At least that gave me a clear rear window that I can now see out of, instead of the glaucomic view I previously had. I was told by the dealer that my tires were old and needed to be replaced - at a cost of $1500. Ha! I thought. But an examination of the rear tires told me the dealer was right and the treads were too thin to pass inspection. Off I went to Costco. The cost? - $1200. It's probably the only time I'll ever wish I had the 16" wheels instead of the 18's. At least the new top arrived in time to prevent the freezing rain from entering my cockpit last night.

$3500 total. Sheesh! Kate tells me I could have purchased a lightly used Pontiac Grand Am for that amount. Truth is, I could have purchased 2 Grand Ams. A red one for those sporty days, and a white one for when I want to be more discrete. I think I would favor the red one. Why be discrete when you have a G-Am. Exactly.

Now?

It's easy to make market numbers support your argument. Still, here's some food for thought...

The Weight - part 3

Easy Rider. As synonymous with New Hollywood cinema as Breathless is to French New Wave. Hopper is no Godard, but how can you not like Captain America and Billy.

In other news, I took my new (to me) IF Crown Jewel on its inaugural ride this past Sunday. Did the Spicewood Springs / Jollyville loop. Titanium frame, Campy Super Record gruppo, Reynolds carbon clincher wheels with Tune hubs, and Zero Gravity brakes with yellow Swiss Stop pads. The pads are very important, as they are one of 2 kinds recommended by the carbon rim manufacturer. It weighs 16 lbs +/- 0.5 lbs. The bike is NICE. Shifting is really crisp. I am using a 12-27 cassette, the 11th cog giving me the 27 teeth addition to the 12-25 I was running on my 10 speed set-up. It helps a bit for attacking (ahem, struggling up) Mt. Bonnell. I had been warned about stopping with carbon rims, but the yellow Swiss Stop pads did an amazing job. I found stopping performance to be even better than with my aluminum rim Eurus wheels and black Swiss Stop pads. More field testing to follow.

And in even more news, I called Grande Communications to complain about my cable reception. They are sending over a technician with a replacement cable box tomorrow. While they had me on the phone, they also happened to mention that they were offering HBO and Cinemax for a month for free if I wanted to try it out. What the hell, I thought. Like I need 28 more movie channels to eat up my time. But with my great multi-tasking prowess, I am able to write this blog, work on my eBay auctions and take in a fine feature film like "27 Dresses" - [A perpetual bridesmaid balks upon learning that her next assignment would be standing up for her sister, who will marry the man the bridesmaid secretly loves]

Thank you Grande.

The Weight - part 2

Captain America, indeed.

The Weight

is over.

Alas.

It was a good night.

Just in time for the elections

I'm flying my new Independent flag proudly. It celebrates my just finished lime Ti Crown Jewel with a new Campy 11 speed Super Record gruppo.

I've been finished for a few days now, but I had a pesky chain issue to deal with. Franky, I'm too cheap to spend $300 on a new 11-speed chain tool, so I made do with a 10-speed universal connector from SRAM. It's 5.9mm wide, whereas the new Campy chain is only 5.5mm wide. Problems? Nah, it seems to work fine. No skipped gears, no loud noises. Overall, I'm pretty happy - and the part was only $3.99 at the local Performance. I gotta say, I thought the frame was a bit flash at first, but the lime color is growing on me. My sherbert bike, as Kate likes to call it. To play up the flash, I had gold Nokon cables installed on the bike briefly, but the overall look was pretty scary. The black ones look much better.




This bike formerly belonged to Matt Bracken, the recent president of Independent Fabrication who is now with Pedros. Anyway, it's a 2004 model. He probably got a new frame or 2 every year when he was at IF.

... which got me to thinking about all the IF bikes I've owned over the years. Hmmm... Here they are in no particular order:

2005 Ti Crown Jewel in Team Colors. Built with Campagnolo Record gruppo. This has been my main ride for the past 3 years.


2006 Ti Crown Jewel in Omaha Orange. Built with a Shimano Dura Ace gruppo.


2005 Ti Planet Cross Single Speed. 3/4 White with Lime Green Flames and bare Ti panels. With a Reynolds carbon cross fork. I built this one up in the spirit of the old Ibis Scorcher. It had White Bros. Eno hubs and crankset, Paul brakes, Chris King wheels that came from Stacey Peters old cross bike, and a Jeff Jones titanium H-Bar and cork grips to top it all off.


2005 Ti Planet Cross. I originally purchased this frame to build into a commuter, because it had fender and rack eyelets. But the top tube was way too short.


2005 Ti Deluxe. I wish I still had this one. A really clean, bare ti hardtail. Disk brakes only. And a decal head tube decal instead of the sterling silver head badge.


I also had a couple of steel Crown Jewels and Deluxes dating back to 1997, but I can't seem to find those pics. That's too bad, since the steel frames all had really nice paint jobs.

Trick or Treat - part 2

I was at Sean and Amy's 10th annual pumpkin carving party Sunday. I created yet another masterpiece.

Day 1: The actual carving. Me, Emily Sue and Diego on the soccer ball behind me. (photo swiped from Dustin and Emily Sue)

Sadly, in years past my pumpkin never survived till Halloween day proper. The damn thing always molded before then, so I had to throw it out. Hopefully, the cold weather and bleach wash will help this year.

Day 2: Looks like some birds or other varmits have started eating my pumpkin. At this rate, it won't have time to get moldy.

Day 3: I sprayed the shit out of it with Tilex. This should ward off potential diners and inhibit mold growth.

Sunday, November 2nd, update (I didn't feel like creating a new post to add these pictures. And besides, the sequence would have been off.)

Day 4: Critters have started to eat the right side of the mouth.

Day 5: More of the mouth is gone.

Day 7: Unfortunately, I don't have a pic from Halloween night proper. This is the day after. I caught a squirrel feasting on what was left of the pumpkin's nose bridge. I have to say, I have some of the fattest squirrels on the block. Sadly, I had to toss Mr. Pumpkin after this photo was taken.

Trick or Treat

Spent the weekend in Houston celebrating my Mom's upcoming birthday. Peking duck Saturday night and dim sum for Sunday brunch. Excellent! The hostess at the dim sum place doesn't speak Taiwanese or English, and I don't speak Mandarin, but she still managed to carry on a 5 minute conversation with me. I admire people who can do that. I believe she was trying to tell me that she couldn't seat us until our compete party was there. I think...

Speaking of party - also on the agenda for Saturday night was a stop by the Volcano for a Halloween party hosted by some of my former co-workers from Kellogg. Ron's chica was working that night, so he tagged along. Volcano = frozen screwdrivers = very refreshing (ahem). Anyway, I decided to attend the party at the last minute, so I didn't have much time to prepare a costume. I ended up going as Clark Kent, Superman's mild mannered alter ego. Ron went as the world's tallest caveman. His costume is always a hit with the ladies.

It was really good to see my old friend Jess and his wife Sandra (the hunchback and bride of Frankenstein). I met Jess when he and I were working in Bintulu, East Malaysia about 15 years ago. He likes to remind me of the time we took a trip to Sibu on the Northern coast of Borneo where we were run out of 10 bars in one night and ended up at a gay cowboy karaoke bar. We didn't know it was a gay bar, but in hindsight the satin cowboy shirts should have been a clue. Jess was newly divorced, so he was trying to strike up conversations with these women in the bars we went to, but they wanted nothing to do with Americans. Unfortunately, I wasn't much of a wingman. I looked a little more like a local than Jess, but as soon as I opened my mouth, it was pretty clear I was an American also. So we would drink our beers, never get offerred a second one, and leave. Repeat that 10 times, and that was our evening. Well, except for that last bar. Jess also swears I ate rat on a stick that night, but I'm pretty sure it was chicken. Besides, it was dark, and I really couldn't understand the street vender. Whatever, it tasted like chicken.

The Final Countdown

Your two candidates speak. The videos are long, but worth it. And they're much more compelling than the last debate.





And concerning the economy, here's a brilliant summary of how the bike industry is handling the situation as blogged by Bike Snob NYC.

And finally, yes - the book is done. Belinda was kind enough to send me the following pic she took of me at Jeff and Ann's wedding reception this past Sunday.

Suit up

Back from California.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner in Cupertino. Funny, it was a place I ate at a few times with Yanlin when I was doing TOI sessions with the original Gauntlet team at Borland. My hotel was in the same center as the old Borland headquarters. Cool hotel - shitty water situation.

Spent Saturday on a walking tour of SF. B and I walked the city East to West, stopping at bike shops and cafes along the way. Not a bad way to see the city. Check out Mojo and American Cyclery if you're ever in the area. Nice. Thanks B for playing tour guide and tolerating me burying my head in my laptop every chance I could get - Caltrain, BART, the wedding reception the next day...

Jeff, I really didn't know you had it in ya. Congrats! Sunday was Jeff and Ann's wedding at the Fogarty Winery in Woodside. Btw, it's a great place to ride. And yes, they had lion dancers. East meets West, as they say. Or yellow fever, as I say.




Sunday night I got a chance to hang out with Brandon for a little while. He's an old friend from the Kellogg days, and he's currently CTO at Quiet Solution. They're doing some cool stuff. Check them out if you get a chance. GreenTech is the new BioTech.

Monday - back home in Austin. I can't believe I was in a suit for 12 hours the day before.

Are we there yet?

Recap of last night's debate:



Bike stuff update:

These went fast. In case you missed them, just sold the Titus Motolite, Campy Super Record cranks and brakes. Still can't decide whether to sell the Crown Jewel as a complete bike or just a frameset.

Ancient Chinese Secret

I suffer from mold allergies. They've been bad lately, so my office-mate suggested I try a Chinese herbal remedy her son used to amazing success. He hadn't been able to breathe through his nose for 7 years, but just 3 days of this concoction and he was sucking in more air than a TDI. Now, that's a compelling story.

It's made from astragalus root, wolfberry and red dates. She told me to go with organic ingredients. But all I could find at the local herb shop were dried imports from China. The astragalus root looks suspiciously like old tongue depressors. The wolfberry were like dried cranberries. Anyway:

• Use 6 sticks of the root, a cup of the wolfberry, and 16 dates.
• Bring a gallon of water to boil
• Lower the water temp and simmer the ingredients for 30 minutes
• Makes a refreshing brew/tea/soup
• Drink a cup a day until symptoms disappear
  

I made a batch a week ago and drank the last of it today. I wasn't sure if it was really working, so I made another gallon of the stuff tonight. Oh, how does it taste? Well, kinda like a Popsicle stick - woody, with a hint of sweetness. Go figure.

Bang and Blame

So I wussed out at the last minute this morning and skipped the 65 miler Eric and Dustin did from Hyde Park to Elgin (and beyond). Sorry, but I just didn't have 3-4 hours available for a ride today.

Since I was up at 7:00 anyway, I went ahead and ran the MoPac to I-35 loop at Town Lake. I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a very social runner. I run to clear my mind, not to chat. So I run with my headphones and Shuffle. Tried something new this weekend. I usually find a song that matches my stride on the trail and end up replaying it all through my run. This weekend, I decided to just load one song in my Shuffle. This way, I don't need to hit repeat all the time. Nothing like hearing the same song 15-20 times in a row to put me in a trance. Granted, I have to anticipate my tempo in advance, but that's not too hard to do. Soundtrack for yesterday: Concrete Blonde: Still in Hollywood. For this morning: REM: Bang and Blame. I'm guessing I was a little faster yesterday.

Spinal Tap Moment

Those of you who have known me for a while know I'm a real cheapskate when it comes to the parts I ride. Reaching as far back as the Colnago Master I rode in undergrad, most of my bikes have been put together with parts from used bikes I've purchased and flipped over the years. I've been known to buy a complete bike just for the headset or brake calipers. Which explains the Chris King Ti and Zero Gravities on my current ride. Sure, it may take 10 or more buy/sell cycles (no pun intended) before I can complete a project, but for me that's half the fun. Granted, it also makes my house look the Yellow Bike Project Annex, but I'm OK with that too.

Anyway, that's all about to change. Dating woes and an unexpected windfall led to a little retail therapy recently... It's a new Campagnolo 11-speed Super Record gruppo. Yeah, I know, it was a very Fred thing to do. Again, I'm OK with that. Buying the parts is one thing; let's see if I really end up using them. You should probably know I purchased Campy Record and Chorus 10 gruppos on clearance earlier in the year, but couldn't bring myself to actually install and sully them. I ended up selling most of it on eBay.

As it stands, I'll still probably sell the Super Record brakes and crankset, as I like the Zero G's better and prefer a compact crank for the hills (see wussification rant in the last post). So if you need the finest Vicenza can offer, give me a shout. The ceramic bearings used for the cranks are suppose to be like buttah. See Competitive Cyclist for a nice review of the new 11 parts.

• Book update: finished the preface and Chapter 1, Rev 2. Chapter 4 is next.


• Debate update: After a lot of slicing with Occam's razor, the net result is nothing, zippo, a draw. Biden seemed more accessible, Palin seemed more together (despite her winks and folksy delivery that I loathe). A bazillion web sites out there are doing their postmortem, so I won't bother adding anything more.

Supersize me

I got more Obama schwag in the mail recently - this time from MoveOn.org. It's a T-shirt; nothing real exciting. But what has me pissed is that the shirt is huge. Out of the wrapper, the thing fits like a mu mu. No worries, a couple of hot wash and tumble dry cycles should fix the problem.

Or so I thought. The thing is still huge. Digging deeper, what I'm really upset about is the fact that the T-shirt was made my American Apparel. It's a fairly nascent company. They make fitted tees. Think pro cut versus club jerseys. Since their inception, I've always worn an XL in their shirts. Anyway, it seems like American Apparel too have fallen victim to upsizing - recalibrating their sizing chart to fit the ever expanding American public.

Old Navy, Nike, Hanes. Dios mio! Who's next - Trojans? What, with all the natural supplements for natural male enhancement being pushed on the public, it won't be long before weather balloon companies start making condoms. It was bad enough when they recalibrated the SAT scoring in 1995 to keep pace with the ever dumbing public. It's all part of the wussification of America - trying to make people feel better about themselves instead of actually fixing the problem.

Be sure to watch the veep debate tonight. Should be entertaining and frightening at the same time. "Frightainment" - you saw it coined here first, folks.

Long time listener, first time caller

I've been pretty bad about keeping in touch lately. Thankfully, Web 2.0 is here to help. This is a work in progress, so focus on the content and not the crappy layout template. That will come in due time, along with the t-shirts and other merch.

First, some level setting, so we're all operating from the same basis:

• Finally finished editing Chapter 5 of the book my Dad and I are writing. The Preface and Chapter 1, Rev 2 are next. 2 weeks to go until the final draft is due to the publisher - woohoo!


• Work is the same. We're moving this weekend to our new office. See exclamation from above bullet.


• Just sold my Colnago CT1 on eBay. The IF ti Crown Jewel and Titus ti Motolite are next.


• Thinking about entering the Bandera 25k and Gruene team time trial.


• House is the same.


• Ditto the landscaping.


• Despite my best efforts, the fennel keeps coming back.


• Some squirrel stole the avocado plant I've been growing for 2 years. Damn - just 8 years shy of bearing fruit.


• Lilly the parrot lives. Sadly, Bob the beagle and Brando the basset died.


• Alison Krauss and Robert Plant were the highlight of my ACL this year.


• Riding to work a couple of times a week.


• Chipotle and Whataburger continue to feed me.


• The mold count is finally going down.


• I can't wait for cooler weather.

Surely, from the above data, one could divine n variables to apply to n equations. Solving these equations simultaneously, it's pretty easy to see how I'm doing. You could argue that this is an NP-complete problem. I would argue to the contrary. The proof is left as an exercise for the reader. Remember to filter out extraneous external variables. Empirical data may be helpful in deriving coefficients. Answer at the back of the blog.