James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

[Mitch]

Today is not one of those days.

Did I miss something here? Interesting read with a great switch from basketball to Netflix seamlessly. I find your ramblings more interesting when they dont involve food and numbers. Just normal life talk and who doesn't like reminiscing about the old days. You were limited about your parents and if I remember back to years past there's probably a reason for that. Story transition here, I'm now on Prednisone for my 10 week old cough and feeling like crap feeling. I think it has effected my emotions and I'm acting strange the past 2 days. Whats that have to do with this?, well my point is that when life has you feeling down its good to go back to your past sometimes and go over the good times in your head. Its good to reminisce. My other point, well not point really just random typing, waa yesterday I went back in reminiscing and did some internet researching about my dad. Thats for another thread, not here to take away from your thread but I guess this really is about your thoughts going out and then our responses or feelings about that. Anyway I found some interesting stuff that I never found before in some archive's on the web. Short story, if possible at this point was my dad was a good basketball player as a kid and ended up going to play for City College in 1950. He happened to be a freshman and was out hurt his first year but thst was the year that CCNY was in the news for 2 reasons. First they not only won the NIT tournament but tgey then also won the NCAA. An amazing team of inner city youth's. They also made the news because 3 of the top players were arrested for point shaving and throwing some games. Anyway I've gone to long here. Ill post a link to a documentary on the scandal below, its a good watch for anyone. Hope my steroid indused writing comes off OK, I normally not this expressive but drugs are good. Also here is a photo from the day, my dads 3rd player from the left. And no Iggy not the 2nd,

black gentleman.
Documentary;
Daily News Story http://creative.nydailynews.com/grandslam1st next to Coach

 

[The Kalmyk]

I’ve followed your threads pretty far back. Good reading.


@Mitch love that story. Your father knew Connie Hawkins- wow! I may be below mid pack on a bike but I can still put a ball in a hoop at a fairly good percentage. I passed on sitting on the bench for Kevin Bannon at Rider. Good thing because he ended up leaving in 96 for Rutgers: the years I may have had a chance at actually playing serious minutes.

 

[ChrisG]

I would have to guess that @ChrisG has quite possibly read more of my blog posts than anyone on the board

I can't speak for anyone else's reading habits, but I can confirm that I've read essentially every word that you've blogged on this site since the beginning. Which, in my mind, doesn't say as much about my reading as it does about your writing. I've always found something of interest in your posts.

I've also always been proud of being included in the first edition of the team. The team has been a force for a lot of positive things in the scene and a solid bunch of good folks. It's pretty wild to consider that 2008 was the first year. That's getting to be a while ago now.

In thinking back on that Hartshorne/Huber ride, I'm pretty sure we did the double-double; two laps at each park. Good stuff.

 

[stb222]

Long time reader, first time caller.

Well before magic bike, saw the death of can a beans (rip), suffered through all of the training talk era, the mtbnj cross era, been there for all of the lack to switch to winter gloves/shoes/dressing, etc, but always tuned in. I can’t lay claim to reading every word but definitely well pre-dated @capedoc

 

[capedoc]

I would have to guess that @ChrisG has quite possibly read more of my blog posts than anyone on the board. I suppose I could be wrong, and someone has been ingesting these every time I post them for the last 10 years without saying anything. But as far as I know, he and maybe @capedoc go the farthest back.

I think it was Chronicles of the Big Leagues I began tuning in...Or maybe it was the one before that? 2009 or so? So yeah ALMOST 10 years of reading this stuff.

This is reminding me how It's kind of scary how fast time is going by. Trying to be more cognizant of it these days and even appreciate/make the most out of the mundane periods of time, such as commuting.

 

[graveyardman67]

The weekend is here, shortly.

Chris was 1 of the original members of the team along with myself, and maybe 6 others. I forget. At this point it stands as me and only @graveyardman67 as the 2 originals left from the beginning. This does also require one to overlook the Ross-and-Rachel-like time period where we could have been said to be "on a break" but for the sake of continuity, I don't really consider Bill as ever having left. We discussed it this past weekend, and as he mentioned, I told him he wasn't allowed to fully leave. We just need to get him some new clothes. I think some of his kits are literally from 2008.

I can verify that my kits are in fact from 2008. As it turns out, I purchased a really expensive washer back then so it has worked well to extend the life of all my clothes. Did I try to resign from the team in 2014 or 15? Yes, and you disallowed it. I did, in fact, do some road races with teammates and a couple of CX races as well after my attempted resignation. Thankfully I kept my kits from 2008, and now I'm hoping Joy is working on some throwback designs so I will be "in" again. I'm also hanging on to my turtlenecks for the next fashion resurgence.

 

[mattybfat]

I actually have a both cycleworks and Halters jersey handed down by you.

 

[pooriggy]

 

[Norm]

Just as Quickly as it Starts, the Weekend Ends

Being it was a kids weekend means that gears shift a little as compared to last weekend, when @pooriggy was picking @MissJR up off her ass up at Stephens. As a side note to that, I found out that her username is MISS J.R. and not Miss Junior. Of course, now that I know this, it's obvious, since I know her middle name. I think she should change her username to MIssJ.R. but it is up to her. And wisely, she has not asked me to change it for her, as it would likely morph into "Miss Who Shot JR?" Actually, I kinda like that.

So on alternate weekends, we are DINKS that do whatever the F we want and piss away money on meals that @Mitch doesn't want to read about. And in between we become parents of 3 that do whatever the F the kids want and piss away money on other stuff that the kids probably won't appreciate until they have kids of their own. This is parenthood, welcome to the club.

We kicked off the weekend with a talent show. Yeah, you read that right. Caught up in the madness of X's Got Talent, we are presented with Long Hill's Got Talent, which I renamed Long HIll's Got (No) Talent before we went. I will admit that I was more than pleasantly surprised, as it turned out to be a generally entertaining 2+ hours of K-through-8 kinds doing various things from singing to dancing to jokes and so on. The 2 best performances were Zac's basketball teammate who plays piano (and has apparently played at Lincoln Center already) and this 7th grader who does freestyle soccer and is the youngest-ever kid to make the Red Bulls Youth something or other. No need to watch this whole video, but this is him below. Just watch like 30 seconds to get his segment. This kid is in 7th grade. That's legit.



For the record, our kids do not participate in said talent show.

Saturday morning came and saw @Dominique & Zac off to Lewis Morris to do a NICA thing, while I hung out with the kids in the morning. Before Simon woke up I had a sit down with Julia, as she has been lashing out in some ways at her mother and saying some things that you don't want to hear an 11-year-old say. In general, she is pretty much "conflict avoidant" at all times, and given the opportunity she will say what she thinks you want to hear as opposed to discuss any sort of difficult topic. At first she went this direction but she quickly changed gears and let me know in no uncertain terms that she hates swim and feels like she is being forced to do it against her will. I am somewhat reasonably convinced that she is telling me the truth so I will go with it for now, and we will work out alternate ways to keep her active.

Rolling that thought into something @Mitch said, I never had issues with my mother & step-father, which are the 2 people I consider my parents. My issues are and were with my dad. I guess it's really just "were" as I have no issue with him now. He's not really my dad in any actual sense other than a sperm donor. So to me, my stepfather is my real father. So say otherwise would be a disservice to all the effort & love he put into raising me. We have a good relationship, and me not saying much about their trip here is probably more a testament to their being retired, and frankly, maybe a little boring now. As a stepfather myself now, everything he did means much more to me now than it did then.

Later that morning I completed my HIPAA training. Being in the medical industry now, I guess this is part of the process. This is not to be confused with Hippo Training.

I also took some time to read some of the weekend Times and an article about Indianapolis caught my eye. Tagging @Carson on this one as I know he is a fan. The article was about the Amazon HQ2 search, which for some reason I find fascinating. I think it may be due to my enjoyment of maps & geography in combination with the tech impact this thing will have. Not sure if people are following this but they have narrowed the list down to 20, with Indy being 1 of the 20 finalists, as well as local places like Newark, NYC, Philly, Boston, and a few in the DC area. Plus some places that suck, notably Columbus, Ohio.

I have somewhat-recently been interested in going there (Indianapolis) because it is the largest US city I have never gone to. The article painted a positive picture of the place and I kind of get the feel that it is somewhat unique in the combination of things it brings together. I am sure I will never move there but I would be interested in hearing what @Carson has to say about it. As a kid, the only thing I knew about it was the Indy 500, the Colts, and the Pacers. At this point, I know a little more than that but not much. As it turns out, my boss was there Saturday for the Indiana Biomedical Society Conference. Yup, IBS.

Saturday afternoon I dropped Julia off at Chinese school then went for a 90 minute road ride. Weather was good so I had no excuse to stay indoors. Ride was fine, more or less nothing of note. Felt good to be outside again and at this point in the year I think things are going in the right direction. What that means, who knows. But I am enjoying the saddle time and the bike feels better and better under me by the week. Again, whatever that means exactly. After Chinese school we went to the park in town. D & Zac & Simon rode behind the municipal building while Julia and I walked with the basketball. We wrapped up the day shooting some baskets.

This morning (Sunday) I held down the fort while D went to the YMCA to spin & yoga. Kids slowly woke up while I read the paper and took their places with me on the couch. Eventually I got to the basement in the afternoon and watched episode 5 of Dark. Few things came together here, though they are starting to introduce so many characters I am not sure I follow them all, much like @JimN and @gtluke have suggested. And yeah, now that you mention it, they're all white and almost entirely in shape. I think when this is over I may re-watch it with D. I was unsure at first because it started to get a little too fruit-loops-ish but it didn't go in that Twin Peaks direction like I feared it might. At least not yet.

D was given the rumor that the YMCA will have new spin bikes in 8 days. Is it wrong that this excites me? Adding to the indoor madness is my purchase of a dongle and a friend's Swift account I am looking to try this week. Indoor riding: Turning the corner in 2018.

 

[Patrick]

love this! How many things we realize as adults, all the things, big and small, that were done with our benefit in mind.
be it our parents (step or bio), grandparents, other family members, their friends, complete strangers.

letting things go lifts a weight off our own shoulders, cause the only place it exists is inside our head.

I must say, i've also enjoyed some of the kids' displays of talent. Perhaps just setting expectations? Seems many more
want to perform than when i was a kid. (i'm now a Band Parent - which is code for bring a checkbook.)

---

so for realz here.

do you help Julia with justification to stop swim? reasons and approach.
or do you directly address "it" on her behalf?

i'll just assume at 11, you'd be ok with proficiency at swimming,
and that switching to fencing is the timely alternative.

 

[Carson]

Indy is pretty cool. It is a larger city (metropolitan area, really) than most people realize, so it's got some large city problems. There are areas that are legitimately unsafe at night (stay out of the East Side). Not Camden unsafe but still unsafe. But most of the area is very nice. I think something like 1.5 million people live within 30 minutes of downtown. But that's like 400 square miles. In a way it reminds me of cities like Las Vegas or Phoenix; when they need more room they just keep building out. Ever expanding. That's something we don't see in NJ/NY.

My cousin's kid just bought a house in a relatively new sub-development 10 minutes outside the metro area. 3BR, nice yard, 2400 square feet. $164,000 and $1800 in property taxes. It's off a two-lane farm road that in another 10 years will be six lanes wide.

When you go, you gotta take a picture on Massachusetts Ave in front of this mural. It's the arts district, so you'll like the area anyway. The KV library is on Mass Ave as well.

Obviously, I have family there so that makes the draw richer. The downsides? It's FLAT. Really flat. I would miss the NJ mountain biking and great roads to cruise on in Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex. And I would be 300 pounds in a few years because BUTTER. Lots of butter.

My gut tells me Amazon will give very serious consideration to Indy. It's cheap, land is plentiful, and who the hell wants to build a HQ in DC/Philly/Newark?

 

[rottin']

@Norm the HIPAA training is a recurring item...have to do it every year (at least we do as part of our compliance policies). It is supposed to be every 12 months but man I swear I feel like a take those things like every four months!!

 

[MissJR]

As a side note to that, I found out that her username is MISS J.R. and not Miss Junior. Of course, now that I know this, it's obvious, since I know her middle name. I think she should change her username to MIssJ.R. but it is up to her. And wisely, she has not asked me to change it for her, as it would likely morph into "Miss Who Shot JR?" Actually, I kinda like that.

wouldn't Miss Junior be MissJr ??

anyway... there is a whole story behind why i chose MissJR and not just because i'm not married and those are my initials.

 

[ekuhn]

There's a few good things about Indy, top of the list is St. Elmo's Steakhouse and their shrimp cocktail - steaks are awesome too. Really clean city and real cool vibe.

 

[Norm]

Double double, toil & trouble. Did the Monday night double again today and this time I made it. Ate some granola bars in between and it worked out. I did my best to go all-in and I was able to mostly pull that off. Second class started to really drag towards the end. I was admittedly tired, but this instructor isn't the best. I mean she's like 25 years old and playing 38 Special, 2 weeks in a row. Cut that shit out. Music is super important in these things. Play Crystal Gayle and you'll have an empty class in short order.

Why? First, I like to front-load my week when the kids are not here. You really never know how the week will turn out but if you start the first 2 days with a solid 3-4 hours, it's not a bad start. Second, the challenge of it.

Anyway.

Julia is now on the Silver swim team, which is a team intended for kids who are aiming for competition. Julia is not in it for that, but she placed out of the lower class because she was getting better. The problem with this is that it's no longer fun, it's just work. The last time I sat and watched them, they just did laps repeatedly. In terms of exercise, this is great. But in terms of fun this is pretty low on the scale and she grew to hate it. She didn't want to keep on it and had no interest in doing meets. I had come to this conclusion a while ago but her mother pushed against it. This has finally broken in her.

So we talked that through, and while she was quiet about it I think we walked through the decision together. She is ok with the idea of finding an alternate to swim. So she'll be involved in that process. This will be an effort for sure. I don't know if that really answers your question Pat.

Anyway again.

I don't know what I think about this HQ2 thing. If I am a betting man, I go with Boston or Toronto.

Bezos has donated large sums of money to the gay marriage cause and recently to the Dreamers Scholarship. I can only assume that he is left-leaning in his political beliefs which knocks any swing state off the list. I have to assume that Bezos has someone whispering this into his ear, that anything he does in the near future will ultimately be fodder for Trump announcing that he has personally created these jobs. For that reason alone, any swing state almost has to be considered out of consideration, which to me knocks out Philly, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Raleigh, and Miami, as well as the DC-area candidates possibly as well.

For a state like Indiana, which always leans conservative, maybe it's a non-issue because the politics won't mean anything. But I would have to think that if he really wants to avoid giving Trump any material at all, he avoids all the traditionally conservative states. Again, this is based on he assumption that someone giving this much money to hardcore liberal causes will consider these things when making a choice. The very real fact of the matter is that we may be on a course of 8 years of Trump. And something like this has the chance to tip the scales in a direction he may not want to tip them.

Newark & NYC fall into the "acceptable" category, but I have to imagine when the new governor comes to his senses, he will pull this absurd tax break from the table. I think NYC is going to just be too expensive. He could set up shop in LA, but I just don't see that as realistic.

In the end, I think he goes with Boston. Or maybe he says screw it and goes north of the border. Frankly that would be the biggest anti-Republican play he can make, but I am not sure he is willing to drop that bomb. I think Google opening an office in Toronto plays a little bit there, though Google has offices everywhere so I doubt it. Then again, none of those other offices are building a "smart city" like the are in Toronto.

Having said all that, I am not sure how much politics plays a role in this decision. This is a massive pull on a local tech economy, and I'm not sure most of these places can actually support it. So many of the places on the list would entail a huge number of relocations in order to staff the place. In reality, NY/NJ, maybe Philly, Chicago, and Toronto are probably the 5 places that would entail the least amount of relocations for the company.

Again, like I said yesterday, I find all of this stuff fascinating.

 

[gtluke]

If he wants to make a difference he would pick a swing state. How many employees and their families will he influence? He'll bring like minded people with him too.
One business that size could swing the vote.

 

[Patrick]

If a kid can truly be honest with a parent - not telling them what they want to hear - then it is a major win.
think about it - you want to partner/guide, they want to impress/not-disappoint. if they can impress by partnering......win.
-
hq2 - why make weather a such a variable? not going to be north.
i'd drop it right in the middle of philly and nyc - oh, wait, that is a place called centerville! can hit it with a rock -

ok - i'd go middle south NJ - start a new area, and develop it. access to ewr, phl, acy, not far from ttn, mjx, or abe.
short ride from delaware - easy jet access into

in all honesty, i'd go somewhere south of richmond.

 

[Norm]

The espresso in this house right now is legit. Paging @seanrunnette.

Today I am given a free evening to do as I please. D is off to do a guest pass at Orange Theory with a friend of hers, then they are going out to dinner. So I'm left to my devices to figure out what I want to do on the bike, eat for dinner, watch on TV, and so on. State of my Union: I am sitting here now, both full & tired, watching Dark, episode 6.

Wait, but I thought you were watching Dark on the trainer...

The Dongle arrives

Given the nature of my legs this morning, most notably pretty shot, combined with the weather, this more or less did not amount to a whole big hill of proverbial beans. The last 3 days have been less than easy on the bike, and this morning I woke up pretty crusty. I briefly considered going to Round Valley, but gave that up after 3 or 9 seconds of thought. I really had no plan. The gym seemed like a waste. The trails were crappy. The road was unappealing. 1+1+1 = probably another easy ride on the trainer while I watched Dark, E6.

"It's happening again." -> Dark

Ok so then this little thing shows up at the door, courtesy of Brown Santa.

Ok so plans change, which you all knew was coming. Decided to try this Swiffer thing tonight. Here is the bullet point recap of how my mid-to-late afternoon went today:

* Plug in dongle
* Go to zwift.com
* Login, realize I need to DL the app
* DL the app, which is beyond preposterously big (for what it turns out to be). Do all the programmers now think that bandwidth, memory, and disk space are unlimited?
* Try to login, fail
* Like 5 times total
* Text owner of account who I am poaching, he logs off his mobile app
* Login works, until it fails again, 5 more times
* Ok fine, reboot this GD thing
* Finally able to login
* At 3:00, I finally get on the trainer to take this for a test spin

Those of you looking for a video game should just go play an actual video game. This is a video simulation of bike metrics extrapolated into a rudimentary graphic representation of a bike rider with a Swiffer jersey. My expectation were not overly high based on the previously stated complaints. So I was neither disappointed nor surprised at what the game/exercise/application had to offer. I was instantly transported from my basement to the virtual streets of, I guess, London. And i was instantly able to ramp the power up to 250w as e-bikers from L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E we dropped into my virtual world, of vice versa.

And just like that, I was some tool going 4 mph on this road. So I did what seemed to make sense and I ramped it up and joined the crowd, then I tried to track down every biker who was in front of me. So far so good. This went on for about 30 minutes and when I looked down my average power was 235, which is usually next to impossible on the trainer. Add in yesterday's double and I have to say that at this stage, it was definitely working in getting me motivated to ride.

I kept going and rounded out the hour, but I had to dial it back because my legs were starting to cook. In the end I wound up with an average of 220+ watts on the ride which is like 60 more than what I usually put out on the trainer. And my average HR was 165 in the end. To say it was a solid workout is an understatement. If I had fresh legs and did this, I am sure those numbers would be higher. Total calories burned, 799. Sorry @Mitch but this is a review of the total experience.

When I was done I was spent. I got about as much as you can hope for out of an hour ride on the trainer. It was a legit workout, and I can see this adding value to these long, dreary winter months. For $15 a month, by 3 months, it'll probably be worth it. Probably.

But the question I have is this. Will the interest last? After the first lap the program just took me on the same roads as I had gone on the first time which instantly seemed unappealing to me. You have the option to take turns but I only did that maybe twice, and eventually I ended up on the main loop again. Is this a thing? Does each "race" have a basic loop that you can deviate from? Can you make it random? At one intersection I let it take me and I went left, and this group of like 40 went straight. One presumes this group trains together normally? And they program a different route? Can you do an actual race? With 10,000 riders out there, it's a bit too free form.

I never joined a "peloton" but kept going where it took me and played "chase the carrot" the whole time. It was interesting enough. I will probably try 1 more time before jumping in and giving the trial a shot. I don't know where we go from here. But I can say this right now. This felt GOOD to push myself this much today.

Sorry. I ruined your numbers. Feel free to delete.

 

[jShort]

Oh shit, Norm 5.0 is approaching

 

[Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST]

That's impressive! When I ride on my 1up flywheel trainer with virtual power numbers anything over 220 watts my tire slips.