FTFY
James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead
- Thread starter Norm
- Start date
ChrisG
Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
Maybe there really was a wrinkle in the space/time continuum, then.
@MadisonDan - thanks for the link. @seanrunnette sent that to me last week, plus the article that went with it. The write-up was impressive in terms of how deep it went. After reading it, then seeing the video, I'm excited about the venue. I'm also more and more excited about doing destination races in the future. Having said that, there may be no more destinations on the plate for us this year, with the exception of Nationals. I don't know if Supercross counts as a destination. With the snow coming in the next few days that puts my attendance at that race as a firm maybe. I've learned my lesson. If it is infused with snow for 4 days, I am less likely to do it. Having said that, I did watch part of the Supercross video and that course looks fun.
@qclabrat - noted, and added to my map as a place to check out.
@thegock - We can call that the Duke Puke. I saw him when I got out of the bathroom. He was standing with 3 other guys and it looked as if it was a golf weekend or something inane like that. Being as it was a Tuesday, that's probably not what it was unless they were on their way home. But who goes to NJ for a golf weekend? We were in the C terminal so they could have been going to any number of places. I'll bet $1 that he has puked again since I saw him last. I just hope it wasn't on someone's lap.
Let me rewind to yesterday at Namu. I asked myself a question this morning: Why did I not buy a pound of the Counter Culture coffee that was for sale yesterday? I don't know the answer to this question. I feel like I've got so much coffee on hand now that it may be a bit much to add another bag to the mix now. I'm also, you know, getting 2 bags a month from this same roaster. Plus I'll be venturing to 3 different places before the end of the year, each of which I will likely find some coffee to take home with me (Pittsburgh, Louisville, Seattle). I'm sure I'll get some beans in the next 6 weeks to take home with me. Maybe all of that added up to not buying more? I also know the beans will trigger my being searched at the airport. But to answer my own question: I don't know. Even though all of that makes sense, I'm a little surprised at myself for leaving a bag on the table yesterday.
I'll try not to let it happen again.
I only have 21 days left in the PS "silo" where I work, where PS = Professional Services. They're starting to panic a bit, but this is their problem. They have had 8+ months to transition and have done almost nothing to address the issue. Today one of the guys who is supposed to help replace me asked if I could help him with something he's been trying to figure out since Monday. This was about halfway through the day today. So this is, just to keep track, 20 work hours. It took me 3 minutes to figure it out what was wrong. The real problem isn't that he didn't know it - I can't expect him to know everything. The problem is that he didn't ask on Monday at 10am. After 1/1 I will move to Product Management, where I'm supposed to be taking ownership of the product entirely. I don't see that happening just yet, but this is the plan.
On another note, I got a call from my old consulting org in Chicago and they want to discuss bringing me back in a FT role, being the manager of the Solutions practice they have there. They currently have 5 guys working in that area and the guy who was running it disappeared. They reached out to me and I told them that I would be open to talking after 1/1. I didn't ask too many questions because I mostly know what I would be getting into - not entirely, but mostly. It'll likely be a combination of things that factor into entertaining this but it's nice that they are reaching out looking to bring me into that role.
Regardless, I'm pretty sure that 2019 will see some version of a change in my employment, be it in the same org I currently reside in or another one. When that will happen is anyone's guess.
Bought my one-way ticket from Louisville to Newark for the day after Nationals. We'll drive there all day on Wednesday, be on the ground 2 full days, then I fly back the following day, Saturday. The first day on the ground will be course pre-riding and scouting and such. Second day will be racing. I imagine we will also eat food & drink coffee-based beverages both of those days. The day after I get back is Simon's birthday then I need to be in Seattle the day after that. Not like cramming it all in at once, is there?
There are many theories at how one gets better at playing the sport of basketball but 1 theory tends to end up being revisited over and over again as a tried and true method of how you get better at playing the sport of basketball. Against many older thought processes, the following things tend not to work as much as some people might think:
* just play games with your friends
* do not actually play, but read a lot about it on the Internet
* argue about basketball on the Internet
* only play games, nothing else
None of these really works that well when trying to learn the sport. What many people fail to realize is that the way to do this is to layer your process into a series of steps. It's sort of like this, though each coach has a different approach:
0. It really does help to be born with some set of genes. I'm not going to deny this so I will label it as point 0, or even Patient Zero if you like
1. Establish some base level of fitness
2. Break down the game into its various elements and practice them
2a. Dribbling
2b. Passing
2c. Pull-up jump shots
2d. And so on. I am not going to belabor all the points of the game of basketball. After all, this blog, this post, none of what you are reading actually has anything to do with basketball
3. Practice games
4. Play real games
Ok, as I allude to in point 2d, let's move on to the real topic of getting better at riding bikes. You need to break down the riding of bikes into components, elements that will help you be better at riding bikes, if this is your goal at some level. We will skip the Patient Zero step as it is assumed that people with natural talent are better than those without. But a good, smart work ethic does get you places.
1. Establish a level of base fitness. For those of you scoring at home, typically this takes THREE YEARS of consistent riding. That's 1095 days or 1096 if you're in a leap year.
2. Break down biking into the various elements, then practice them
2a. Build your FTP
2b. Work your CP5
2c. If you are into road races, work on your 1000 meter end game
2d. If you are into cross, work on the technical elements of the race
2e. If you are into mountain biking, learn to ride technical trails
2f. And so on
3. Practice riding fast
4. Race
With that out of the way, today I did a ride that was 1 hour and 15 minutes long in which I did 5 efforts of 2:40-3:00 each. It was just some Zwift hill that worked for my goal of the day, then between them I pedaled moderately around the Watopia Hill Loop. The whole point here is for me to work on point 2 above, specifically for me that CP3-CP5 range, which is not real strong for me at this stage. Why am I working this power range? Because I am a firm believer that your w/kg at CP5 is about as good a race predictor as you can get when it comes down to what you can predict with a numbers-only approach.
So today I worked on that. Here are the 5 efforts in terms of power:
343, 355, 345, 294, 316
The kids have to do some slideshow for their LAL class, which stands for Language Arts Lab but which I refer to Laugh At Larry. So I joined them and created this slideshow while they worked. This is stupid, I know:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pjxsWZdV18eFDjKyjAs6aP4gU-VSth8ioSf8_067QPQ/edit?usp=sharing
@qclabrat - noted, and added to my map as a place to check out.
@thegock - We can call that the Duke Puke. I saw him when I got out of the bathroom. He was standing with 3 other guys and it looked as if it was a golf weekend or something inane like that. Being as it was a Tuesday, that's probably not what it was unless they were on their way home. But who goes to NJ for a golf weekend? We were in the C terminal so they could have been going to any number of places. I'll bet $1 that he has puked again since I saw him last. I just hope it wasn't on someone's lap.
Let me rewind to yesterday at Namu. I asked myself a question this morning: Why did I not buy a pound of the Counter Culture coffee that was for sale yesterday? I don't know the answer to this question. I feel like I've got so much coffee on hand now that it may be a bit much to add another bag to the mix now. I'm also, you know, getting 2 bags a month from this same roaster. Plus I'll be venturing to 3 different places before the end of the year, each of which I will likely find some coffee to take home with me (Pittsburgh, Louisville, Seattle). I'm sure I'll get some beans in the next 6 weeks to take home with me. Maybe all of that added up to not buying more? I also know the beans will trigger my being searched at the airport. But to answer my own question: I don't know. Even though all of that makes sense, I'm a little surprised at myself for leaving a bag on the table yesterday.
I'll try not to let it happen again.
I only have 21 days left in the PS "silo" where I work, where PS = Professional Services. They're starting to panic a bit, but this is their problem. They have had 8+ months to transition and have done almost nothing to address the issue. Today one of the guys who is supposed to help replace me asked if I could help him with something he's been trying to figure out since Monday. This was about halfway through the day today. So this is, just to keep track, 20 work hours. It took me 3 minutes to figure it out what was wrong. The real problem isn't that he didn't know it - I can't expect him to know everything. The problem is that he didn't ask on Monday at 10am. After 1/1 I will move to Product Management, where I'm supposed to be taking ownership of the product entirely. I don't see that happening just yet, but this is the plan.
On another note, I got a call from my old consulting org in Chicago and they want to discuss bringing me back in a FT role, being the manager of the Solutions practice they have there. They currently have 5 guys working in that area and the guy who was running it disappeared. They reached out to me and I told them that I would be open to talking after 1/1. I didn't ask too many questions because I mostly know what I would be getting into - not entirely, but mostly. It'll likely be a combination of things that factor into entertaining this but it's nice that they are reaching out looking to bring me into that role.
Regardless, I'm pretty sure that 2019 will see some version of a change in my employment, be it in the same org I currently reside in or another one. When that will happen is anyone's guess.
Bought my one-way ticket from Louisville to Newark for the day after Nationals. We'll drive there all day on Wednesday, be on the ground 2 full days, then I fly back the following day, Saturday. The first day on the ground will be course pre-riding and scouting and such. Second day will be racing. I imagine we will also eat food & drink coffee-based beverages both of those days. The day after I get back is Simon's birthday then I need to be in Seattle the day after that. Not like cramming it all in at once, is there?
How to Get Better at Basketball
There are many theories at how one gets better at playing the sport of basketball but 1 theory tends to end up being revisited over and over again as a tried and true method of how you get better at playing the sport of basketball. Against many older thought processes, the following things tend not to work as much as some people might think:
* just play games with your friends
* do not actually play, but read a lot about it on the Internet
* argue about basketball on the Internet
* only play games, nothing else
None of these really works that well when trying to learn the sport. What many people fail to realize is that the way to do this is to layer your process into a series of steps. It's sort of like this, though each coach has a different approach:
0. It really does help to be born with some set of genes. I'm not going to deny this so I will label it as point 0, or even Patient Zero if you like
1. Establish some base level of fitness
2. Break down the game into its various elements and practice them
2a. Dribbling
2b. Passing
2c. Pull-up jump shots
2d. And so on. I am not going to belabor all the points of the game of basketball. After all, this blog, this post, none of what you are reading actually has anything to do with basketball
3. Practice games
4. Play real games
Ok, as I allude to in point 2d, let's move on to the real topic of getting better at riding bikes. You need to break down the riding of bikes into components, elements that will help you be better at riding bikes, if this is your goal at some level. We will skip the Patient Zero step as it is assumed that people with natural talent are better than those without. But a good, smart work ethic does get you places.
1. Establish a level of base fitness. For those of you scoring at home, typically this takes THREE YEARS of consistent riding. That's 1095 days or 1096 if you're in a leap year.
2. Break down biking into the various elements, then practice them
2a. Build your FTP
2b. Work your CP5
2c. If you are into road races, work on your 1000 meter end game
2d. If you are into cross, work on the technical elements of the race
2e. If you are into mountain biking, learn to ride technical trails
2f. And so on
3. Practice riding fast
4. Race
With that out of the way, today I did a ride that was 1 hour and 15 minutes long in which I did 5 efforts of 2:40-3:00 each. It was just some Zwift hill that worked for my goal of the day, then between them I pedaled moderately around the Watopia Hill Loop. The whole point here is for me to work on point 2 above, specifically for me that CP3-CP5 range, which is not real strong for me at this stage. Why am I working this power range? Because I am a firm believer that your w/kg at CP5 is about as good a race predictor as you can get when it comes down to what you can predict with a numbers-only approach.
So today I worked on that. Here are the 5 efforts in terms of power:
343, 355, 345, 294, 316
The kids have to do some slideshow for their LAL class, which stands for Language Arts Lab but which I refer to Laugh At Larry. So I joined them and created this slideshow while they worked. This is stupid, I know:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pjxsWZdV18eFDjKyjAs6aP4gU-VSth8ioSf8_067QPQ/edit?usp=sharing
Just so you know, I liked the Underwear report. We need more LAL, that was really entertaining, although, I'm not sure if the kids handed that in if they would get high accolades or a note sent home followed by a parent teacher conference. The world needs more outside the Underwear thinking.
I can second the recommendation to this place. I highly recommend the Scallion Pancakes from there - so good.
It's a little small inside so if you are planning to eat there allow a little extra time - it's usually pretty packed - but they do a good job turning the tables over.
The first day of snow has arrived, which is the obvious statement of the day. The fireplace is blazing. The kids got off school early. And it appears the entire state of NJ was unprepared for this event. Even though every news & weather outlet talked about this for the last 48 hours, it seems every township in the state somehow forgot to salt the roads when it started to come down. I guess these organizations (for this is what they are, an organization that's supposed to be maintaining the towns at some level) use the same cookbook when determining if/when to put down salt. And apparently, the cookbook said of today: Thou Shalt Spread No Salt. And so, the entire state of New Jersey has morphed into a Georgia-like situation where everyone is stuck in place. Thankfully, I work at home.
We also bought a gallon of milk. I think this is what you're supposed to do on these days. I later made a half gallon of hot chocolate, and just for shits & giggles we cooked eggs for dinner. Maybe I'll toast all our bread merely to flaunt the fact we have plenty here. We also have coffee, a new Counter Culture from Guatemala. So far, it's good. I have a feeling I am going to say this about every bag they send me. The first batch from box #1 still stands as the best of the 4. I may start to experiment with other methods of Aeropress brewing.
The kids have a 2 hour delayed opening tomorrow which I am mentally preparing to be a day off. My 40 work hours are up, so tomorrow is a free day for me. It's nice that the weather is so perfect to do anything out there. I probably need to hop on a call with Seattle. Yes, the whole city. I refer to these clients by name because I don't expect you to remember them. On that note, I'm trying to figure out the Seattle trip and I'm not sure how I'm going to play it. Too much to work out yet, but I prefer to stay downtown and the workshop is north of the University district. All I know is that it's going to be a hectic bunch of days. Like 18 in a row.
@jmanic - watched The Post today while on the bike. Solid recommendation. When I saw it on the HBO feed I was pretty stoked. Good movie. I'm making the best of this free time I have. Not only do I expand my horizons I downsize my rear end. #winning
We also bought a gallon of milk. I think this is what you're supposed to do on these days. I later made a half gallon of hot chocolate, and just for shits & giggles we cooked eggs for dinner. Maybe I'll toast all our bread merely to flaunt the fact we have plenty here. We also have coffee, a new Counter Culture from Guatemala. So far, it's good. I have a feeling I am going to say this about every bag they send me. The first batch from box #1 still stands as the best of the 4. I may start to experiment with other methods of Aeropress brewing.
The kids have a 2 hour delayed opening tomorrow which I am mentally preparing to be a day off. My 40 work hours are up, so tomorrow is a free day for me. It's nice that the weather is so perfect to do anything out there. I probably need to hop on a call with Seattle. Yes, the whole city. I refer to these clients by name because I don't expect you to remember them. On that note, I'm trying to figure out the Seattle trip and I'm not sure how I'm going to play it. Too much to work out yet, but I prefer to stay downtown and the workshop is north of the University district. All I know is that it's going to be a hectic bunch of days. Like 18 in a row.
@jmanic - watched The Post today while on the bike. Solid recommendation. When I saw it on the HBO feed I was pretty stoked. Good movie. I'm making the best of this free time I have. Not only do I expand my horizons I downsize my rear end. #winning
Zwift after I picked up the kids and the world was Watopia. Decided that today would be a threshold day which means hill climbing. First hill is the original Watopia climb, CW. This is pretty much the introductory big hill when you enter this world for the first time.
1. Watopia KOM CW - previous best 29:25, new PR 28:36. That was a good start to the day so I turned around and did it in reverse. I generally let the rides come as they come. If I feel good I keep pushing If not, I dial back and reset expectations. Today I felt pretty good. So I kept going.
2. Watopia KOM CCW - previous best 26:07, new PR 26:02. BOOM! This was hard. The last time I did this hill first, so I was fresh. With 3-4 minutes to go the timer dropped from the sky and the ETA was hovering right around my PR so I had to push myself to make it. Did the needful but this was a good burn. I'm sure the next time I do this, I could hit this first and beat the record. But we'll worry about resetting all of these next year when I get to 180. Since I nailed 2-for-2, decided to aim for a 3rd.
3. Volcano Climb - previous best 10:22, new PR 9:54. Obviously this one was pretty old but still, after 1:45 and 2 new monster hill PRs where I was working for 54+ minutes, this was a pretty solid way to finish up the ride. In all, managed ~59 minutes of tempo+ work today. Happy with that.
The big takeaway today is that my ability to produce power at the end of longer rides is getting considerably better. After 1:45 I still had it in me to knock out a solid effort up the Volcano Climb. I'm sure that I can crush this when totally fresh. But given what I was doing today, this is a pretty good ride.
Tomorrow I have no idea. With this snow the weekend is now IDFK-land.
1. Watopia KOM CW - previous best 29:25, new PR 28:36. That was a good start to the day so I turned around and did it in reverse. I generally let the rides come as they come. If I feel good I keep pushing If not, I dial back and reset expectations. Today I felt pretty good. So I kept going.
2. Watopia KOM CCW - previous best 26:07, new PR 26:02. BOOM! This was hard. The last time I did this hill first, so I was fresh. With 3-4 minutes to go the timer dropped from the sky and the ETA was hovering right around my PR so I had to push myself to make it. Did the needful but this was a good burn. I'm sure the next time I do this, I could hit this first and beat the record. But we'll worry about resetting all of these next year when I get to 180. Since I nailed 2-for-2, decided to aim for a 3rd.
3. Volcano Climb - previous best 10:22, new PR 9:54. Obviously this one was pretty old but still, after 1:45 and 2 new monster hill PRs where I was working for 54+ minutes, this was a pretty solid way to finish up the ride. In all, managed ~59 minutes of tempo+ work today. Happy with that.
The big takeaway today is that my ability to produce power at the end of longer rides is getting considerably better. After 1:45 I still had it in me to knock out a solid effort up the Volcano Climb. I'm sure that I can crush this when totally fresh. But given what I was doing today, this is a pretty good ride.
Tomorrow I have no idea. With this snow the weekend is now IDFK-land.
There was some brining (is that a word?) happening down here on Wednesday but it seemed to be ineffective.
The mix they use for the pretreatment is basically an educated guess based on the forecast as the concentration of the brine and liquid has a very specific temp range. When the temp didn’t rise as forecasted, it made any of that brine completely ineffective (obviously).
Salt wouldn’t not have done much yesterday anyways as salt isn’t particurly effective when it is applied during the event. The timing of the storm was probably the worst for a work day, people leave early, jam the roads with accidents and it just compounds from there.
Okay, so I just binge-read like 2.5 weeks of this.
In reverse order:
Glad you liked The Post, great film, great story. Hope it still was cool even though your viet nam binge ended a while ago.
We also really liked The Big Sick.
And yes, came away liking the guy who plays Sean Runnette.
And post of the year goes to Mitch Wakes Up As Norm.
Holy crap that was a good read.
A remake of Freaky Friday that well surpassed the original.
Also to watch, that doc on RBG that I mentioned. Very interesting in a compare and contrast way with current events.
In reverse order:
Glad you liked The Post, great film, great story. Hope it still was cool even though your viet nam binge ended a while ago.
We also really liked The Big Sick.
And yes, came away liking the guy who plays Sean Runnette.
And post of the year goes to Mitch Wakes Up As Norm.
Holy crap that was a good read.
A remake of Freaky Friday that well surpassed the original.
Also to watch, that doc on RBG that I mentioned. Very interesting in a compare and contrast way with current events.
This is the new freaky Friday btw
*not safe for presence of children, or select ethnic groups, or select senesitive parties, or people who no like humor
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Right, pretty much the same thing
I kick off the word festivity tonight with the tacit admission that today was a total and complete aimless day for the most part. It started with the notion that I had a free day. But then the snow started coming down, and D was working from home, and the kids were off school, and my open day turned into a all-hands-on-deck-at-home day. I was up before everyone but instead of doing anything productive, I screwed off all morning then people started waking up and I was aimless again. I did try to edit one of the chapters in my book but I think I am torn right now between taking a rest, and finishing up a few things before taking a rest. So I waffled and did nothing. I could have read, but I didn't read. I could have watched a movie, but I didn't. I could have written my congressman, created an ode to a weather god, shovelled the sidewalk for an elderly person, or any 1 of 1000 useful things. I did none of these and the day just went like this because I had nothing of value to do with myself:
Then my 10:00 work call came and I got on it, because if I am going to blow off my calls I might as well do it with a purpose. After that was done I told my boss if he needed me to do anything, I was open again. I had told him last night that I was at 40 hours and he told me to go on a day trip today. But with the snow and kids and all that, I wasn't really doing much. He asked me to help him out, which is really the direction I should be in anyway. So in essence, I started say 1 of my new/ish role in PdM today because I had some free cycles. They immediately added me to 2 hours of calls and just like that, I am in the mix there.
We talked at the end of the day and decided this needs to be permanent. This is a good thing for me, and it means we are pulling me partially out of PS earlier than anticipated. After talking with a few people it is painfully obvious my boss needs some help so I'm going to start taking on some of that now. He's been hesitant to pull me in because he knows my plate is full but this is because the PS org is abusing my time. That's going to end now.
All of that and Supercross is out. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice, kick me in the nuts with steel tipped boots. I'll skip the boots this weekend. I probably could haiku that but instead I will show you this picture.
Did some Pittsburgh discussing today and I think it is unlikely we will get much in the way of riding done out there, with the exception of the Wheel Mill or whatever it's called. I think we also want to hit the Andy Warhol Museum while we're there. No set plans but we're trying to figure out what next weekend holds. I admit that I am coming face-to-face with the reality of my EOY run and the whole travel thing is looking more and more taxing. But we also enjoy hanging out with @2Julianas and @MurderBort so much that we know we'll have a good time. Plus I like food and they like food and we like food so there's always food. Probably espresso too.
@seanrunnette and I discussed oddcasting then never did it. Then the goddamn mustard ran out.
I made dinner while D was at spin, and this picture is here for @jmanic specifically. Pan fried these pork medallions then baked them for 10 minutes.
I rode my bike while I watched the end of s1e8 and the full s1e9 of Man in the High Castle. Here is one thing I don't get. The premise of this is totally suspect. Ok so there is an underground trying to undo the fact that the Axis won WWII. Ok fine. So there is some film, films plural. This "man in the high castle" makes these films. Ok, ok, still with you here. But then, out of nowhere these films are worth dying for? How is a film going to make a difference in, well, anything? I mean, the protagonist, Juliana, just decides to risk her life for this film that is, well, of moderate actual subversive value. I will admit that at this point, I am interested to see how the series winds up but today it really struck me how thin the premise is. Then e9 ended and it was like, whaaaaaaat?! Admittedly, a bit of a game changer. But FFS, did you need to wait until 90% of the season was over to drop that?
So as a side note, as you know, the series is abbreviated MITHC which is close to @Mitch which I would like to rewind one day and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to.
My ride was like 1:20 of moderate effort. With the races out of the question this week, I'll try to race this weekend. I may do a double-Zwift race.
Then my 10:00 work call came and I got on it, because if I am going to blow off my calls I might as well do it with a purpose. After that was done I told my boss if he needed me to do anything, I was open again. I had told him last night that I was at 40 hours and he told me to go on a day trip today. But with the snow and kids and all that, I wasn't really doing much. He asked me to help him out, which is really the direction I should be in anyway. So in essence, I started say 1 of my new/ish role in PdM today because I had some free cycles. They immediately added me to 2 hours of calls and just like that, I am in the mix there.
We talked at the end of the day and decided this needs to be permanent. This is a good thing for me, and it means we are pulling me partially out of PS earlier than anticipated. After talking with a few people it is painfully obvious my boss needs some help so I'm going to start taking on some of that now. He's been hesitant to pull me in because he knows my plate is full but this is because the PS org is abusing my time. That's going to end now.
All of that and Supercross is out. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice, kick me in the nuts with steel tipped boots. I'll skip the boots this weekend. I probably could haiku that but instead I will show you this picture.
Did some Pittsburgh discussing today and I think it is unlikely we will get much in the way of riding done out there, with the exception of the Wheel Mill or whatever it's called. I think we also want to hit the Andy Warhol Museum while we're there. No set plans but we're trying to figure out what next weekend holds. I admit that I am coming face-to-face with the reality of my EOY run and the whole travel thing is looking more and more taxing. But we also enjoy hanging out with @2Julianas and @MurderBort so much that we know we'll have a good time. Plus I like food and they like food and we like food so there's always food. Probably espresso too.
@seanrunnette and I discussed oddcasting then never did it. Then the goddamn mustard ran out.
I made dinner while D was at spin, and this picture is here for @jmanic specifically. Pan fried these pork medallions then baked them for 10 minutes.
I rode my bike while I watched the end of s1e8 and the full s1e9 of Man in the High Castle. Here is one thing I don't get. The premise of this is totally suspect. Ok so there is an underground trying to undo the fact that the Axis won WWII. Ok fine. So there is some film, films plural. This "man in the high castle" makes these films. Ok, ok, still with you here. But then, out of nowhere these films are worth dying for? How is a film going to make a difference in, well, anything? I mean, the protagonist, Juliana, just decides to risk her life for this film that is, well, of moderate actual subversive value. I will admit that at this point, I am interested to see how the series winds up but today it really struck me how thin the premise is. Then e9 ended and it was like, whaaaaaaat?! Admittedly, a bit of a game changer. But FFS, did you need to wait until 90% of the season was over to drop that?
So as a side note, as you know, the series is abbreviated MITHC which is close to @Mitch which I would like to rewind one day and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to.
My ride was like 1:20 of moderate effort. With the races out of the question this week, I'll try to race this weekend. I may do a double-Zwift race.
Robin
Well-Known Member
We hit the Andy Warhol museum on one of our trips out there. Not to miss.
Please rent a smaller bike (i.e. BMX or DJ) if you hit the Wheelmill. If you opt to ride your MTB at least put flat pedals on. Also check with @MurderBort on appropriate attire
Please rent a smaller bike (i.e. BMX or DJ) if you hit the Wheelmill. If you opt to ride your MTB at least put flat pedals on. Also check with @MurderBort on appropriate attire
Is that a bourbon burp?
I think it would be a disservice to this thread if norm did anything but wear spandex and ride his 29er there.
I have totally and completely lost all purpose over the course of the last few days.
I wish I could tell you why that is, but I'd just be grasping at straws if I'm being honest with myself, as well as with you, the reader. However, as I'm sitting down writing about this, you can bet that I will attempt to grasp at one straw. I've decided to go for 3 straws. The first is this weather in combination with the cross season target, another is work, and the last is my book.
There is no rhyme or reason for my pictures anymore. They just are.
Straw Grasp #1: I feel like I'm staring down the barrel of a complete and totally wasted seasonal effort for cross. I've resigned myself to the fact that @seanrunnette and I will drive 708 miles to Louisville in a single day which, holy shit, sounds stupid. We will then hang out at the venue on Thursday and probably do 8 laps of the course at a moderate-to-low effort. Given the way everything has gone, it will then commence raining so much that those bent towards religion will start to construct arks overnight. Then Friday we will race, or perform some version of a BattleFrog, where that word/expression is used as a verb. @MissJR and @Santapez will cheer for us, or laugh at us, depending. That night we will eat dinner and I will pack my bag. The next day I will fly home.
As @jShort and I have talked about, this is a prelude to 2019. I'm aware of this and excited to move forward to the next phase. But I would be deluding myself if I said this cross season has been anything but dogshit on several levels.
Straw Grasp #2: Work is entirely unfulfilling right now. Attempt made to address that on Friday and will continue to push that on Monday.
Straw Grasp #3: My book. I have "finished" some version of the first full edit and I don't think it is remotely readable but I am not really in the mood to forge on right now. I think I need to let it sit and bake for a week so I have decided to not look at it until we get back from Pittsburgh.
On the note of Pittsburgh @MurderBort has suggested we do this event, which @2Julianas and @Dominique have both told us, and I am paraphrasing here, that there is no f'ing way on god's green earth that either of them are doing. I was moderately interested but then when I saw 50 miles and 13 hills and 5 hours I figured that wouldn't fly. So no, we won't be bringing our road bikes. We'll rent scooters or whatever at the Wheel Mill. I have mapped out 4-5 of the top espresso places in the city. I will leave the food aspect to the 2 of them. Andy Warhol and maybe Carnegie thingy may be worth a trip?
Speaking of food, there was a food festival at the Chinese school (WHRHS) this weekend, which started an hour before Julia's class. She and I went over to see what they had and at first, it looked kind of promising. We got some wontons (which were warm at best) then I got some tea eggs which were so-so, then I tried a taro pastry which was hard and stale, then I got a green tea cupcake which was actually good but it was made with the Japanese tea powder so it wasn't even half-authentic Chinese food. I mean, not that cupcakes are anything but American. In the end, I'm sure we will try again next year but it was a bit of a miss. Plus I bit into the egg and the not-fully-cooked yolk exploded out of one end like some sort of egg yolk sperm vomit and sprayed all over my jacket, shirt, and pants. It was lovely.
One of Julia's classmate's mother told me I look like I've lost weight which is what I will be focusing on as of 12/15. That will be the start of my drive to 180 pounds. I previously shared my inherent fear of the scale, the love-hate thing that goes on with that piece of equipment. I feel it should be ready to give up the 19# but like I've said before if I get on it and it throws a 205 at me I may be tempted to smash the POS. I told Sean my pipe dream for 2020 and a sort of rough plan for 2019. He responded with total and complete silence so maybe I need to get another pipe to cook my dreams in. Perhaps I will add a crack rock to it.
On dreams, or delusions & reality, I finished the first season of The Man in the High Castle today and as @UtahJoe suggests is the case with every show ever, the whole damn premise of it is to roll you into the next season. The last scene of the 10 episode series just tears the whole fabric of MITHC space-time asunder and turns everything you just watched on its head. I say that as a sort of dig on the show in general but I think it's actually a good thing. I wish they would have followed this theme a bit more through the series as it makes the gravity of everything a lot more fascinating to me (yeah yeah, fascinating gravity, you can use that as your band name). I am now interested to see what transpires in season 2 though I find both of the main characters somewhat...um, how you say, dipshitty? Douchebaggy? Not at all likeable? Take your pick.
I am wavering between a new trainer show and rolling right into season 2. I'm leaning towards season 2. Note that I am likely going to download Patriot to my phone for the flight to Seattle & back.
One more TV-related note. We watched Wonder with the kids last night. Absolutely great movie. I really enjoyed this. Good family flick and something you should check out.
I love Zwift. I love Zwift races even more.
They have separated the A/B/C/D classes now so it's a lot harder to hide in the selection and drop the bulk of the class then cobble your way to the end. So if you want to solo off the front of one of these races you need to be able to legitimately solo off the front. As Sean mentioned in the podcast, they've also made the drafting effect a bit better which I think is a good thing as it was previously a little thin. This kind of translates into a few things. First, it is easier to hide in the pack when you're with a bunch of people. Second, it means the hills are more important than ever. Both of these things are they way they should be.
Yesterday the race was in London and we did the big 20 mile Greater London Loop. We were just the C race which was big in itself, 130 people. I'm not sure why there were so many but it was pretty hefty. The selection was like 35-40 people and we shed a few in the first 10 miles. But they released the A/B class after us, which was interesting when they caught up to us. It was the equivalent of throwing a grenade in the class and a handful of people took the opportunity to jump into that field and hide their way away. Right after that, the course punched up the only real climb in the race so the pack of 35 was totally and completely shredded for a bit. KABOOM!
After those 2 events I was somewhere, I forget, maybe 11th. There were a few of us together so we formed up 4 of us, then 6, then 10, etc. We managed to gobble up everyone save for 2 guys that had gotten away. In the end we were 13 in the main group and we were battling for 3rd overall. I managed to stay with the group but when it was time to sprint my legs were a little cooked so I did not contest it. 15th in-game and 6th overall on Zwiftpower when the sandbaggers were culled.
Today I decided to join the Toronto Zwift Donut Race, an 18 mile/900' vertical race in the Mango Jungle, the actual name of which I forget. This one was 52 total and it immediately split in 2, half off front and half in the pack behind. The 25 of us started to really splinter as we approached the entrance to the Jungle as it is a legit climb to get there. Somehow I made the turn at the top of the hill in 8th. I'm not sure when this happened but I seem to actually benefit from the hills in the last 2 days. I imagine the people hiding just get exposed more now. I bounced around a bit and passed the 7th place guy then the 6th place guy. I could see on the map that a Pac Man Peloton was forming behind me so I dialed it back and the 2 of us just sort of waited to get gobbled up, which happened on the downhill into the base of the Jungle. I think at this point we were battling for 6th, as 5 guys were out ahead.
We then climb back out and I'm able to lead up or stay at the front the whole time, but we're a dozen people so there is no getting away. We gobble up 1 more guy so now we're in the mix for 4th. We leave the jungle loop and crest 1 more hill, some dude from Columbia and I take off but it's just for shits and giggles because there is a monster downhill coming up. Have you ever tried to outrun a virtual group going 40 mph downhill? it's impossible. This is why we obliterated the 20sec gap the 3rd place guy had.
Then there was a metric shit-ton of navel gazing until .4 miles to go. Then we sprinted and this time I actually tried. 3rd place overall out of 52 starters. I absolutely love these races. They are fun as hell to me. This almost reset my brain's lack of purpose & focus. Too bad I gotta go back to work tomorrow.
After the race I disconnected from Zwift and did a spin-down with the Wahoo app to make sure that the Kickr is putting out the right numbers. I felt pretty good these days but I want to make sure the power output is real and there's no drifting going on.
They have separated the A/B/C/D classes now so it's a lot harder to hide in the selection and drop the bulk of the class then cobble your way to the end. So if you want to solo off the front of one of these races you need to be able to legitimately solo off the front. As Sean mentioned in the podcast, they've also made the drafting effect a bit better which I think is a good thing as it was previously a little thin. This kind of translates into a few things. First, it is easier to hide in the pack when you're with a bunch of people. Second, it means the hills are more important than ever. Both of these things are they way they should be.
Yesterday the race was in London and we did the big 20 mile Greater London Loop. We were just the C race which was big in itself, 130 people. I'm not sure why there were so many but it was pretty hefty. The selection was like 35-40 people and we shed a few in the first 10 miles. But they released the A/B class after us, which was interesting when they caught up to us. It was the equivalent of throwing a grenade in the class and a handful of people took the opportunity to jump into that field and hide their way away. Right after that, the course punched up the only real climb in the race so the pack of 35 was totally and completely shredded for a bit. KABOOM!
After those 2 events I was somewhere, I forget, maybe 11th. There were a few of us together so we formed up 4 of us, then 6, then 10, etc. We managed to gobble up everyone save for 2 guys that had gotten away. In the end we were 13 in the main group and we were battling for 3rd overall. I managed to stay with the group but when it was time to sprint my legs were a little cooked so I did not contest it. 15th in-game and 6th overall on Zwiftpower when the sandbaggers were culled.
Today I decided to join the Toronto Zwift Donut Race, an 18 mile/900' vertical race in the Mango Jungle, the actual name of which I forget. This one was 52 total and it immediately split in 2, half off front and half in the pack behind. The 25 of us started to really splinter as we approached the entrance to the Jungle as it is a legit climb to get there. Somehow I made the turn at the top of the hill in 8th. I'm not sure when this happened but I seem to actually benefit from the hills in the last 2 days. I imagine the people hiding just get exposed more now. I bounced around a bit and passed the 7th place guy then the 6th place guy. I could see on the map that a Pac Man Peloton was forming behind me so I dialed it back and the 2 of us just sort of waited to get gobbled up, which happened on the downhill into the base of the Jungle. I think at this point we were battling for 6th, as 5 guys were out ahead.
We then climb back out and I'm able to lead up or stay at the front the whole time, but we're a dozen people so there is no getting away. We gobble up 1 more guy so now we're in the mix for 4th. We leave the jungle loop and crest 1 more hill, some dude from Columbia and I take off but it's just for shits and giggles because there is a monster downhill coming up. Have you ever tried to outrun a virtual group going 40 mph downhill? it's impossible. This is why we obliterated the 20sec gap the 3rd place guy had.
Then there was a metric shit-ton of navel gazing until .4 miles to go. Then we sprinted and this time I actually tried. 3rd place overall out of 52 starters. I absolutely love these races. They are fun as hell to me. This almost reset my brain's lack of purpose & focus. Too bad I gotta go back to work tomorrow.
After the race I disconnected from Zwift and did a spin-down with the Wahoo app to make sure that the Kickr is putting out the right numbers. I felt pretty good these days but I want to make sure the power output is real and there's no drifting going on.
Yeah, the dirty dozen in nutz, I'm good at climbing and have zero interest in that. The roads in Pittsburgh are the steepest I've ever seen, 3rd world country stuff and they chisel these row houses into the side of a mtn. The only bike thing I'd suggest, if you really want to do a bike thing and it's mild enough, is to rent citi bikes and ride along the 3 Rivers Path. You can see Heinz field, PNC Park as well as the sights along the river. IMO this time of year it's not a must do, it's more relaxing when it's warm out.
Warhol and Carnegie are huge, and need 1day each. In fact Carnegie has Art and History, you could even break that up or cram it all in.
I will add that you need to visit the Duquesne Incline. Its historical and gives you the best perspective and views of the city. You will not regret it...and bring cash, they don't accept cc.
http://mobile.dudasite.com/site/duq...rg/&utm_referrer=https://www.google.com/#2559