James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
So...this thing keeps happening where the week starts, then before you know it, it's Sunday again. It's Sunday again. I currently have a sort of love-hate relationship with Sunday, because it usually represents this day of little-to-no plans where I can kick back and read my newspaper. For better or worse, I am becoming the 90-year-old man who walks out in his bathrobe and gets the paper when it's 8 degrees out. I really enjoy taking a solid 30-60 minutes of my life and reading the Times Magazine, in addition to a few other pieces of the weekend paper. So in this respect, I enjoy Sunday. At the same time, you have this "week is over, time for the grind again" feeling. Now, I don't hate my job by any stretch. In fact, I take a lot of enjoyment out of it. But there is always some aspect of it that blows, and right now that aspect is an org in Minnesota that I am working with. When I thought about that, my blood pressure went up a tick.

As a counter to that thought process, it turns out I have tomorrow off. In reality, I am not sure if I can take the whole day off but I may pull a half day. I wish it were going to be 55 and sunny and I could go out and get a 2-3 hour ride in. But it doesn't look to be in the cards so I'll take what the day gives me. I may end up breaking out for the day after lunch, and then go hit up Chimney Rock for my first MTB ride of the year. Hopefully it's not 5 degrees when I wake up.

This past weekend saw the in-laws in town with more presents, marking the actual end of the Christmas season. Here, Simon opens 1 of his presents. I think he managed to get them all unwrapped in less than a minute, both Friday night then Saturday when my parents came with theirs. The astute reader will note the glass of wine in the pic, as well as the cups on the shelf behind D that go with the ill-fated teapot from last week. And the Russian dolls at the far upper right of the cabinet. Also that D is dressed for dead-of-winter and Simon is dressed for summer-in-Florida.

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When D's parents are in town it usually translates to food. This is a roast chicken that was picked apart for lunch one day:

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Then here is Saturday night's dessert:

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I took some other pics but they were not as good, so this is what you get. I know @Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST is a fan. Aside from eating, we are provided free Child Shepherds for the weekend so we took advantage and hit up the gym both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Saturday we just did spin class where my right knee was bothering me so I was not able to stand on the bike. Oddly, just putting it on high-resistance and turning a low cadence made it feel better. So I ground out an hour+ yesterday morning.

This morning, the knee was feeling better so I did whatever the instructor said, which is usually some combination of sitting, standing, and sitting & standing. When it comes down to it, the options on a spin bike are kind of limited. After spin, D did yoga and I went to get a coffee and read the NYT Magazine. I have a take on the Guo article but I will let @jmanic read it before I offer anything. That hour+ of my day epitomizes what I love about these unstructured, free-form, aimless Sundays I described above.

As an aside, is it a requirement for every woman who enters a Starbucks to wear black yoga pants?

Then later in the day I went back to the YMCA with the boys and we played basketball. I am old and my knees hurt after an hour, but I can still shoot the ball pretty well. The boys eventually found 2 other kids to play with, and I just practiced my baseline jumper for a while. Yes Zac is color blind.

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On the week I ended up with 7:39 on the bike, all inside, plus an hour of basketball. I am starting this year on a much better track than last year, when I more or less did nothing for 2 months. I seem to be a little more driven this year, which is good. I am certainly more tired at night. With that, I am going to read and go to bed.
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
If Simon is starting off basketball I would suggest underhand layups. Kinda what you and I would call a finger roll. Functionally it’s a whole lot easier when kids are learning opposite hand shooting. Our generation was always taught over head which is applicable but also very hard to do when you want to tryout your off hand during lay ups.
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Okay, read the Guo article.
That was interesting, but a little light on details for an intro, so I backtracked to an article they did on him in May.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/...-of-the-exiled-billionaire-whistleblower.html
(Do I get extra credit?!?)

Not sure where you are going with this, so random thoughts:
- interesting parallels with someone making headlines in the US
- even though obviously not all of what he claims or will claim will be true, there must be something to his allegations, otherwise he wouldn't have woken the dragon. Just because there have been lies, and quite possibly corruption in his dealings doesn't automatically negate his claims.
- what motivates him, and what does he gain? Influence, maybe a seat at the table in the future?
- if his claims are true, the effect will be big just based on scale- China's scale is large, as is their economy and contribution to the world economy and trade.
Even ripples will become waves as they spread out.

Random thoughts there for you.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
The Ides of January. It was a good Ides. The morning was most of the way through it's march towards the Ides of the Ides when Zac and Oma (Grandma in Dutch or German) made 2 mug muffins, 1 of which he gave to me:

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I will say it was a pleasant surprise and quite tasty.

After lunch, I got back on my mountain bike and took a spin around Chimney Rock for the first offroad (or any outdoor) ride of the year. I was pleasantly surprised that I felt better on the bike than I have in a while, so putting in an hour+ of real time every day seems to be paying some dividends. While I am not KOM Hunting by any means, I felt reasonably good out there which at this age, is about all I can ask. In addition, I got to ride the new trail that @Kirt put in and I have to say I really like it a lot. Nice work, these HIgh Tech guys. I also hit up yellow, orange, white, and red. I skipped blue because I almost always start with that loop. I parked at the ballpark today to force myself into a different set of loops.

Knees hurt when I got up today, not gonna lie. I can't imagine what former athletes have to go through. But they only hurt on the steps and not the bike. If I had to choose, I'll take painless bike over painless steps right now.

This is not meant to be an "I am getting old" series of thoughts but this next comment is probably going to sound old. One thing I have come to enjoy is the obituaries in the NYTimes through the week. Well let me rephrase that. I am not enjoying that people keep dying; it's not as if I want to see death. What I am enjoying is the life perspectives (aka obituaries) that are run in the paper. Today's was Doug Harvey, which was a good read and brings me back to my days growing up, when I liked watching baseball. There was an anecdote in there about Stan Musial which was enjoyable. As you read these parting shots, so to speak, you get this perspective that you may have never gotten. As it turns out, Harvey was 87. I don't really want to read the obituaries of people less than 80, to be honest.

Does anyone get the National Geographic channel? If so, can you watch Chain of Command tonight and let me know if it is worth seeking out? I saw an ad for it today and I was intrigued. But we don't get it and I am not sure I want to pay to subscribe to the other 50 channels that Verizon will no doubt make me pay for in order to see it.

I am told there is more snow on the horizon? I wonder if we will get that group ride in on Saturday. I also wonder if I will make it up to @seanrunnette on Thursday to do that podcast. I don't think he reads my blog so I have to tag him. I am not sure he reads much of anything these days with his water situation; something I assume that has not gotten better with the drop in temps again. But I think we need to podcast more. Currently we are penciled in for this Thursday morning, I believe.

In the end I worked maybe 3-4 hours today. I am not going to do anything tonight other than watch TV and read. D's folks are still here but they are leaving tomorrow. So we will likely just sit around and BS the rest of the night. They usually go to bed early, as they will be on the road early.

Their parting gift, a field of brownies:

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pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
am told there is more snow on the horizon? I wonder if we will get that group ride in on Saturday.
Ok, now you sound like an 80 yr. old women(Kirt Mills) talking about how weather may effect events a week away.
I'm more worried about the fact that Bill has the flu and we may need Magic to lead this ride.
Bring some of dat cake next Saturday:)
 

ChrisG

Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
Improbably, yesterday was my first ride off road/outdoors for 2018 as well. I got out for 2 hours at Hartshorne/Huber, which is pretty much my equivalent of you riding at CR. Also similarly, I was happy to be out there, but certainly not setting any records.
 

Mitch

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Took me 3 days to read your Sunday post. I'll read Mondays tomorrow when I have a free day. I like the hoops idea. We should get the team together for a game. #MTBNJ vs the world, that would be cool. On another note my son picked up some hockey equipment and I took like 3 shots and I miss that sport. Let's get a team together for that too.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I am going to start this with the opening of a joke, because I think otherwise this all becomes too somber.

Setup: How can you find Will Smith in the snow?

So.

I am saddened today by the loss of Dolores O'Riordan, former lead singer of the Cranberries. Yesterday I noted the passing of an old baseball umpire, Doug Harvey, who was part of my childhood and leaves me with fond memories of scoring baseball games as a kid on my parent's couch. Today, it is a much different feeling to find that 1 of the ubiquitous voices of my post-college life has passed. What's more disturbing is that she was 46, the same age as I am, just a few months older. In a year where I have been concerned enough about my health that I quit drinking entirely, this hits much closer to home than an 87-year-old ex-umpire. The fact that she was a daughter, and a parent of 3, who is my age, really strikes a nerve.

I was never a huge Cranberries fan...but I liked them. To have been a fan of any music at that time, you had to at least acknowledge that she had an amazing voice. Maybe the music wasn't your cup of tea. But I think that no matter which way your musical tastes lie, you have to admit that she was a great singer at a time when music was a more forceful part of our culture than it is today. Specific to me, it was a time when I was becoming "my own" person, starting life as a self-funded post-college kid. I often say that your life starts anew in a sense when you leave school for good. For me, this was that period of time. Her voice is 1 of many that defines a part of that time period.

It is a strange time in my life in terms of these people dying, and I wonder if everyone goes through this sense of the loss of your former self. Aside from Harvey and O'Riordan, former college football announcer Keith Jackson died last week. Here is another voice from my childhood that was silenced in the past week. Add on more notable names like Mary Tyler Moore and Princess Leia, and this past year has been one of considerable loss in terms of my childhood memories. I know from an intellectual standpoint that every year marks the passing of some segment of your memories. Maybe I am just coming to terms with this in combination with my own mortality.

Ok that's enough of that. I promise not to turn this into James Pearl Thinks Everyone is Dead.

With that, I did a double spin class today because I want to live to be like 87, or 142, or something a lot higher than 46.

Punchline: Look for the Fresh Prints (Fresh Prince).

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stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
With that, I did a double spin class today because I want to live to be like 87, or 142, or something a lot higher than 46.


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Man, I was all you in this with the Cranberries and then you piss all over it with doing a double spin class when it was 40 degrees out? If that isn’t a recipe for death of the mind, not sure what is.
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Ode to My Family
Is still hard to not fight back tears or get choked up for me. It was at a time of major change in my life of divorce and death. It's one of those songs that was prevalent. Reading up on her life sounds she had her own struggles. Still not certain how she passed but sad none the least.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
you have to admit that she was a great singer at a time when music was a more forceful part of our culture than it is today.
I often wonder about this, was music a more forceful part of our culture back then or were we just more in tune with music culture back then.
I laugh at Pearls post college age play list an he laughs at mine.
 

Mitch

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Somber post for sure regardless of joke. Still waiting for punch line...?
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Combining yours and Iggy's post, I think it may be a matter of timing as to what matters.
Music released during formative years will have a stronger emotional memory.
Just is.
The tunes on the airwaves when you are just spreading your wings are the soundtrack for that portion of your photo album.
And so on for the rest of your life.
 
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