As Heard In Iowa

Why does this remind me of the drone of current crop of Republican Presidential hopefuls?

I Need To Make A Stencil

I think I need to make a stencil and buy some paint...

My New Favorite Breakfast Cereal

Well.... not really. A new cereal showed up in the pantry the other day, Coffee Flakes! These were found in the health food section, of course, in the HyVee over by Evil Borders in Bettendorf. While I don't think that they are going to become a regular feature on the table, it was certainly entertaining. As an added bonus, if you tend toward more milk than cereal, you have a very weak Café au lait left over.

I don't think it's going to be replacing the daily bowl of oatmeal or the very occasional one of the lovely sugar covered ones from my youth (Coco Krispies, Frosted Flakes, or Alpha Bits).

The Post of The Month Club

Maybe I should delete this thing. I certainly don't seem to be doing well with respect to posts. Oh well... Let's see...

1) The group rides have started up. Got shelled out of the first one as expected. Spent too much of my meager energy closing gaps. The good part is that I was there long after a number of folks that are actively racing were. So... I might even be able to manage a finish with the group this season.

2) The hamstring issue seems to be clearing up. Not sure why, but I'll take it.

3) More new music... I've heard a cover of Pink Floyd's Breathe, a couple of times on Under Currents. It's done by a band named Poor Man's Whiskey. In fact, they've got a whole album out covering Dark Side of the Moon (Darkside of the Moonshine). Here's a clip of them doing it. I'm not sure what the deal is with the Wizard of Oz costumes.

I'm Not Dead

Too much stuff going on and not enough time. Quick update.

• Did Cycle Oregon. The ride wasn't epic although suffering was involved. The beer and coffee was epic.
  
• Ramping the yoga practice up.
• Less than 1100 miles to go to make 10000 again this year.
• Riding spin classes is no substitute for riding outside.
  

I'll have a more detailed post, with images (and there are some good ones) from Cycle Oregon at some point... Now, I think I'll go for a walk.

More Skillz?

Grape Soda??? I'm down wit it.

Cutting Edge Research

Wow... Here's an interesting little paper. It's well worth the read if you have an interest in modeling infectious disease. The infectious disease in this study is Zombie-ism. Given my stumbling across this on the InterTubes today and the V3 class, I'm reprising a video I posted last year. Enjoy!



Note: One of my mathematician friends thinks that this will be a great way to introduce a standard model to his students.

Librarians Just Want To Have Fun

Who says those librarians don't know how to have fun? The daughter went to the American Library Association meeting in Chicagoland this weekend. She's hoping to catch the Book Cart World Championships. Here's a clip from last year:

Sunday

Well... Another week has gone by. Did a quick trip down to the St. Louis area for the 4th. A good trip. The drive was nice and boring, just like I like it. I actually made it over to the gym that was close to the hotel to ride a spin class so I could keep the legs working. It was pretty good, but I really don't care for the bikes they had. That said, it was a massive drip fest.

I'm now starting to get into RAGBY mode. I have to seal the floor of the tent and the ground sheet, but the magic stuff showed up a couple of days ago. Then it's find a few things here and there and start stuffing it into bags.

I plan to put the Ti beer wrench pictured above to good use with the folks from The Bus during the week. It will be nice to see everyone again. I find it interesting that since I started doing RAGBRAI, I've made a number of good friends that I see once a year. That's the best part of the ride.

Also... The 2009 edition of the Tour de France. I'm somewhat bummed that Jason McCartney didn't make the Saxo Bank Tour team. I would have loved to see Jason and Jens sitting on the front of the field and shredding it to pieces. There are a number of interesting twists to this year's race. The Team Time Trial (TTT) is back, but with time losses unlimited. Also, there are no time bonuses at the end of stages. I'm really hoping that someone other than Lance Boy wins. It will be very interesting to see how Astana manages to get four potential TdF winners making a team effort.

One Post Fits All

My oh... Today's led Primary Series class at the Shala had me in full drip mode early on. I'm thinking that the folks surrounding me might have been thinking about starting to fill sand bags to deal with the sweatage. My rug was completely damp when I folded it up after practice. *lol* We had a whole bunch of folks in the room today. We were missing the Iowa City visitors, I suspect the weather yesterday was the cause of that. We were also missing a couple of regulars. Which means we had some new folks, which is always a good thing.

Now I need to get into recovery mode and maybe to a ride in. The snow is pretty much gone where the sun has been hitting it. The ride into work tomorrow morning isn't looking like it will be something approaching "circus act", as I had been fearing.

Then it's off to the Redstone Room to see Railroad Earth this evening. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make most of the show. I had a great time the last time these folks played there. I just need to keep in mind when my alarm goes off for the ride into work. Doors are early, so that should help.

The Late Guitar Madness

Man... It was a long day yesterday. Did the spin class, the V3 class (I believe the Russian judge had the 9.7 card out for degree of difficulty), then the Music Guild production of The Producers. That show rocked! But then... it's a Mel Brooks musical. What's not to like? Then a bit of snow shoveling at 2300 hours after we put the car in the garage. Sick.

In honor of yesterday's crap-tasic weather and hoping for better...

Long Week

Man... It's been a long week and there is still Sunday to go. Between work, life, yoga, and the bike, I feel lucky to be awake. I managed 230 miles for the week so far and I still have Sunday's miles after yoga to go. I'm hoping it stays dry. Wednesday was the long day for the week. Did 30 on the commuter since the rain was in the forecast. Then, since it stayed dry, I went out with the Wednesday evening training ride. It was surprisingly sane. We did 35 in a bit over 1:50. I did some work at the front and the HR average for the ride was 125 bpm. I'm encouraged by that.

Tomorrow, it's going to be a ride to the bagel shop in the morning, the led Primary Series class at the Shala, and then more miles. Sometime after that, I need to get my tax stuff together. Oh Joy!

Pi Day!

Woo Hoo! Irrationality Rules!

Elegent Weapons

I've been prompted to pull out and dust off my copy of The Little Schemer to brush up my LISP skills, after seeing this toon (please click the image to do it justice) over on xkcd. Now I just need to find a decent LISP compiler for this WinDoze box. That and figure out how to find more hours in the day...

Check out all of the fine toons by Randall Munroe at xkcd.com.

Captain! We're Having A Power Fall-off!

Where's Mr. Scott when you need him? Man... I'm sitting here 3+ hours after today's V3 class at the Shala and I still am whooped. I did the 90 minute spin class at the gym this morning, after Round One of me wielding the snow shovel. Then it was to the cafe for a latté and muffin. Then back home for Round Two of snow removal. A brief recovery and then it was off to the V3 class. We did a number of "interesting" things, as usual. By the time we got to Urdhva Dhanurasana, I believe my arms could be best categorized as toast. I managed to get myself home and passed a snow plow as I turned up the street. It was now time for Round Three. I don't believe that the snow will be answering the bell for Round Four, but you never can tell. Right now, I'm hoping to crawl into bed early tonight. Not sure how much sleep I may get tonight because of major work stuff happening overnight. We'll see. I'm hoping I am recovered enough to do the Primary Series class tomorrow and maybe a little bike ride.

On The Down Slope

Man... It's been a long day. I didn't have near enough of the alkaloid referenced to the left. I also wimped out in a major league fashion today. I rode over and caught the bus this morning since the air temp was a balmy 2F when I rolled and then there was that wind out of the northwest at 14mph. I wasn't really in the mood to suffer this morning. When I was loading the bike, I managed to slip on some ice and hyper-extend the left knee. It's not been happy since. So... I decided to do the bus home since I didn't want to find out it wouldn't work where I couldn't get an easy extraction from my stupidity. It seem to work ok for the ride from the bus to the house. So... I elected to go to yoga at Indigo tonight. It wasn't the best practice and the knee reminded me that it was there a couple of times. Right now, I have a fair amount of ibuprofen in me and a liberal slathering of Polar lotion on it and the calf. We'll see how it is in the morning.

I'll probably be wimping out again in the morning as it's supposed to be -3F for a low.

Note: The graph above is from Tom Edwards. You can purchase a lovely coffee mug with this graph on it here.

Stupid Rodent

That stupid rodent, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow again this morning, heralding six more weeks of winter. It it were up to me, February 2nd would mark the beginning of open season on these vile weather prognosticators. His New York City counterpart, Chuck, took a bite out of Mayor Bloomberg. I don't know what that predicts.

The ride into work this morning wasn't nearly as icy as I expected it would be. That said, it was still very slick in places. The studs were worth their weight in tungsten carbide steel. On the ride home, I managed to "recover" a nice set of work gloves.

I Think I've Seen This One

President To Face Down Monster Attack, Own Demons In Action-Packed Schedule

Jack Piper And The Chamois Of Fire

Ah... At long last the sequel is being released. Last year, the group of Merry Pranksters that I hang with on RAGBRAI was entertained during the long winter's night by a story written by one of our own, Flava Dave. The first story can be found here - magicbeanbus.blogspot.com

The sequel, Jack Piper and the Chamois Of Fire, is being published at Stuzio. It's being done as Flava Dave has time to get the chapters out in between getting miles in and his day job. Enjoy!

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As I put this post up, I've got a movie on the telly that I haven't seen in ages, The Commitments. It has the absolutely best music. It's highly recommended.

The Year In Review

I've shamelessly stolen this idea for a post from The Rev. But... In my own defense, I've always had a profound distaste for the "Year In Review" that the local fish wrap, a.k.a. newspaper, does and this is pretty funny.

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And here is one featuring the music of Jim's Big Ego...





Note: I love this band. Buy their stuff or at least download the free album for free.