James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
What the frequency Kenneth?
The standard bearers for triple-A radio (adult album alternative) in our area have been the big 3:
90.7 WFUV
88.5 WXPN
91.9 WNTI (formerly, now OTA this is WXPN, though WNTI can still be streamed)
Lots of overlap in their standard programming playlists,
so it's about personal preference on the edges that makes the difference

WFUV (out of my alma mater) is great, but a tad too polished.
That said, this is usually what is on at Chez Manic.
Evening broadcasting is great.

WXPN is also good, but can get on my nerves sometimes.
(As Robin noted, you can now catch this over the air on 91.9,
because Centenary sold their frequency to them-
didn't even know you could do this).
One day I was doing DIY stuff in the 91.9 listening area,
and was stuck listening to an entire day of solo stuff by members of the Beatles (it was some Beatles anniversary).
I like the Beatles, but wanted to smash my radio after like 8 hours.
The stuff they play on weekends between 2-4a is pretty great though.

WNTI is the sweetspot for me. I consider them the dysfunctional siblings of WFUV.
For example, I spent years listening to Johnny D overcome his stutter while broadcasting live on the radio.
And the stuff on their edges speaks to me more than WFUV or WXPN's.
IMG_9862.JPG



New kid on the block in Sussex county is Sussex County Community College radio (97.5).
This doesn't fit the triple-A mold, but promises to bring more dysfunction to the airwaves than WNTI.
All their djs sound like they are broadcasting out of a tin can,
and last week's listening highlight was a polka version of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire.
Come on!
Their broadcast area is like 2 sq miles though, and I'm not even going to look to see if they stream.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Weekendus Terminus

They kicked off the Olympics a few days ago. If you have emerged from under a rock that you've been living under for the last week, and this blog is the first thing you have read, then there is some news for you. In other news, don't check your 401k. Whilst not checking my 401k on Friday, we put on the opening ceremony, or is it The Opening Ceremony? I don't know. We, being the 5 of us here, watched the pomp & circumstance Friday night. I am not a connoisseur of Opening Ceremonies, but I thought this was extremely well done. I thought the "augmented reality" or whatever they call it was pretty cool. I will say that NBC kinda dropped the ball by putting us through a nonsensical Dog & Pony show of Katie "I <3 Plastic Surgery" Couric and Mike Tirico, and then cut the show short and told the audience to go watch it online.

Last night we watched the Slopestyle stuff which was pretty exciting. But I think they should add a new category, Snoop Style, where a bunch of these kids get stoned and then do these runs. I mean being realistic, don't these guys get stoned on a daily basis anyway? Anyway, I like this stuff and the kid that won is/was mad-crazy. But it's hard to totally buy into it these events when they are all about style. Let's face it - neither you nor I have any idea how hard any of these moves are. The last dude who went, the Canadian, I forget his name, he made it look like his stuff was a little easier. Was it easier, or was he just better at it? I don't know. I think the right guy won but at the same time, is the winner of this event the person who a) goes totally out of control and b) saves it. I have no idea.

We just watched the Dutch guy win like his 90th straight speed skating event. I think it's easy to like the Dutch for several reasons:

1. In general it is not a nation of assholes
2. They're just really good at the skating
3. Colors. I mean, do I need to explain?
4. D is part Dutch. Note: she is not a speed skater.

Short track is awesome, especially in the later rounds when the go ALL-IN and crash into the boards. Man they should add fireworks to the boards, so that when the hit them, there a massive, colorful, explosion. Tell me this would not be awesome.

I have always enjoyed figure skating but I really dislike the "metric-ization" of it, aka the continuous/mandatory point scoring thing. I call this the Russian Judge Effect, which I'm sure you understand me calling it that. You would have this perfect performance and then the Russian judge would give it a 1. I 100% understand why it is done. But it has ruined some of the enjoyment for me. At the same time, I think Michelle Kwan got robbed and I am not sure that would happen today. But who knows.

Curling? Biathlon? You may think they are dumb, but there are rules, hard and fast rules. And seriously how awesomely preposterous is it that in the biathlon you have to do extra laps if you miss?

Tonight is alpine skiing. This is one of the better sports IMO. Speed, explosive crashes, plus hard and fast rules. Easy to like it.

I think my favorite flag is Belgium. I made my flag Canadian in Zwift. Zero fucks given.

belgium-flag-std.jpg


Speaking of Zwift, hit it 3 times over the past 3 days.

* Friday I did my first race. It was hard
* Saturday and Sunday I did endurance rides. Both were like 90 minutes.
* Total riding on the week was just over 10 hours

I am sick, which is making everything harder right now. Today's ride I just did 205w for 90 minutes and my HR was like 165-170. Way elevated right now. I was going to either do a race or FTP test tomorrow, but I need to ride easy.

D got to try out the new spin bikes today, with power! At the end, the instructor asked how many people got over 400w. She was 1 of only 3 to raise their hand. This was a full class of like 27 people. Not even the instructor made 400. D's w:kg today was almost the same as my ride. She seemed pretty excited about the power, which is new to her.

I am now off to enjoy the remaining few hours of my weekend, or maybe go lay in bed, or both.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I assume you're saving the North Korean cheerleaders for another entry? I couldn't stop thinking about that shit. Bizzaro!

I impressed by how much you're getting out of zwift. Like the old day, your blog is intriguing me. Having assigned workouts though and basically paying for them, I don't think the zwift model is one that would work for me. But having just done a 90 minute indoor session, I can't help but think it would have been more fun doing the simulation. Although, I started watching billions on showtime and it was pretty cool, so I got that going for me.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I guess I've gotten use to watching TV without commercials(Netflix, HBO, SHO). I find it painful to watch the Olympics on channel 4.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
I’m not sure how people can even tell what the airs are for snowaboarding anymore (up to 1440, at some point people are going to be able to add anymore), I know the judges have the run the rider is trying and what the tricks are, so similar to any other technical event, it is if they pulled that trick, where the grab is, if it was switch or regular (or fakie or nollie ornis nollie just switch fakie?!), how well they did it, the difficulty l, how long is the run on sentence, how high they did the trick, and ofcourse style. However, style can be set aside if the difficulty is off the charts.

And the competition you speak of is the x games.
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
What the frequency Kenneth?
The standard bearers for triple-A radio (adult album alternative) in our area have been the big 3:
90.7 WFUV
88.5 WXPN
91.9 WNTI (formerly, now OTA this is WXPN, though WNTI can still be streamed)
Lots of overlap in their standard programming playlists,
so it's about personal preference on the edges that makes the difference

WFUV (out of my alma mater) is great, but a tad too polished.
That said, this is usually what is on at Chez Manic.
Evening broadcasting is great.

WXPN is also good, but can get on my nerves sometimes.
(As Robin noted, you can now catch this over the air on 91.9,
because Centenary sold their frequency to them-
didn't even know you could do this).
One day I was doing DIY stuff in the 91.9 listening area,
and was stuck listening to an entire day of solo stuff by members of the Beatles (it was some Beatles anniversary).
I like the Beatles, but wanted to smash my radio after like 8 hours.
The stuff they play on weekends between 2-4a is pretty great though.

WNTI is the sweetspot for me. I consider them the dysfunctional siblings of WFUV.
For example, I spent years listening to Johnny D overcome his stutter while broadcasting live on the radio.
And the stuff on their edges speaks to me more than WFUV or WXPN's.
View attachment 63386


New kid on the block in Sussex county is Sussex County Community College radio (97.5).
This doesn't fit the triple-A mold, but promises to bring more dysfunction to the airwaves than WNTI.
All their djs sound like they are broadcasting out of a tin can,
and last week's listening highlight was a polka version of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire.
Come on!
Their broadcast area is like 2 sq miles though, and I'm not even going to look to see if they stream.
I was sad when WNTI died on my channel. Spider still on the stream? Centenary had a long run. Yes XPN wants me to smash things at times. Also miss the reggae hours.
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I was sad when WNTI died on my channel. Spider still on the stream? Centenary had a long run. Yes XPN wants me to smash things at times. Also miss the reggae hours.
Yup, I miss it too.
Don't stream much.

I don't think Spider is there anymore.
:(
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I feel like in the quest to make some of the sports fair, they have removed some of the suprise elements... Take one of my favorites, mogul skiing. If you have ever skied a real mogul run... Say outer limits at Killington... You know that it's totally different from the hand crafted, perfectly spaced moguls in the Olympics... So in the Olympics the skiers can take a perfect stright line down the mountain... Their movements are perfectly timed no need for picking lines, the jumps they do are like one of three variations.. They all do the same tricks... Like I get they have given the competitors a formula to practice with at home, but they have removed the suprise elements which is what makes moguls fun to watch. So everybody looks exactly the same and for me anyway, makes it less interesting.... Moguls are an example, but I think there are several of the competitions that follow this script

I did watch all 90 min of the women's moguls today and it was still awesome tho....

When red Girard won that gold medal over the Canadian I picture you dressed as Apolo creed jumping up and down on your bed and chanting USA USA in @Dominique s face....:)
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I am working my way through the various new streaming stations. So far, still going with EQX as the best of them. Zero fucks given if it is local or not. If it's good, they can broadcast out of Chad for all I care.

Tis the Industry...

San Diego is off. As you may have noticed, travel in this industry is sporadic, to say the least. Today we found out the San Diego trip has been bagged. I can't say that I'm terribly upset about it. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy travel. And more, I enjoy travel when it takes me from a winter destination to a place that is 40-50 degrees warmer on average right now. But this was going to be an internal company tech summit and it just comes at the wrong time for us. We (the tech team) have a metric shit-ton of work to do and the only way for us to be able to pull this off would be if Project Management could guarantee that every customer right now would take a pause for the week.

Long story short, I'll be in New Jersey next week. And like I said, faced with a 6 hour flight, 8 hour days followed by 6 more hours of hotel work, followed by another 6 hour flight, and I'm just not really all that upset right now. Plus it makes this coming weekend a little more free in that I don't have to think about what a burden next week was going to be.

Having said that, short-term (between now & end of March) potential destinations include...

* Minnesota (yeah that one won't die)
* Seattle (just got the PO today)
* Durham (yay Christian Laettner)

Failing all that crap, we'll be going to Florida for Spring Break. I truly have no idea when the next time I will be on a plane is.

Failing San Diego, there's always Zwift

I am trying not to talk about this every day because I get that it can be obnoxious. So today I took it super easy and did 40 minutes in Fantasy Land. I have been doing a lot of volume and I am still sick. In fact, I slept like total ass last night. I was hacking up all night and eventually had to go downstairs at 3am because I kept waking D up. She wanted to see me skip today, but I don't like how I feel when I do nothing. After the ride my congestion cleared up a lot and I felt good for a little bit. I am back to being slammed with phlegm and nuclear sneezes.

@jShort

I think you need to have some roadie in you to really enjoy Zwift. It does not surprise me to see @Delish and @graveyardman67 hitting it up pretty frequently because at heart, all 3 of us loved the road racing thing at one time. It may seem dumb, and I'm ok with people saying as much. But something as simple as dropping a pixel-formed bike rider in front of you and giving you some indication that what they are doing is driven by actual human power, and it just raises the motivation to a level I would not have believed possible before. I am not surprised that @UtahJoe didn't like it so much, as his road bike is not his favorite for sure. Likewise @1speed seemed to not really get too much out of the group aspect of it.

I don't think I will ever get back into a full-on training schedule again. I have been around this block enough times to know what works for me, and what doesn't. I will caveat that by saying even though I know what works for me, doesn't mean I can accomplish it. For the most part, dropping weight and riding a shit ton does wonders for me. The intervals come in the course of doing things on the bike. I may throw in some interval workouts at some point in this thing, but right now I am good with the mixed intervals that come with doing a race on this simulation, or riding with people, etc.

I will say that the #1 thing, by far, that stops me at 90 minutes is the grundle right now. Today I took steps to alleviate that by putting the road bike on the trainer. The fit on this bike is way better for the long-haul trucking version of riding and today I felt better immediately when I got on the bike. The cx bike is a little too compact and puts a little more pressure on Ye Olde Tainte than I am comfortable with. I typically do not like putting the road bike on the trainer but it's mostly because I know I will be too lazy to swap out a new tire once it gets warm and I will blow it out because I'm lazy. But if I am going to do these 90-120m rides, I think I need to swap out the comfy bike and make sure I put on a new tire when it's warmer out.

First thing I noticed today was that the road bike is creaky-loud. I think a bottom bracket greasing is in order, as well as the pulleys on the RD. They have a distinct squeak to them when they are in need of some love. As tempted as I am to just douse the whole area with lube, it's probably not a great approach.

Subdomaining

I will make this short, but I like this potential for entry points into the site. @seanrunnette told me what his username on Zwift was yesterday and he said Sean Mtbnj.com, to which I immediately thought would be a great way to bring people in. So I pinged @gtluke who setup a few subdomains, and I present to you our first subdomain:

sean.mtbnj.com

This just makes me smile.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Having said that, short-term (between now & end of March) potential destinations include...

* Minnesota (yeah that one won't die)
Minnesota is awesome xc ski land. If you go try and get on the Gunflint Trail.
 

seanrunnette

Brain Damaged Ray Romano
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This just makes me smile.
Happy to help :) (Note that I was watching a cx race on the phone while attempting to revive the cold water line to the sink, which didn't work and we ended up deadheading that line and running a new one.)
 

Dominos

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I think it's easy to like the Dutch for several reasons:
I was in The Netherlands last week for work and Dutch people are pretty awesome. I, too, am part Dutch. But it was in the 30s all week and everyone rides bikes everywhere. And, they ALL talk about speed and distance skating like it's the SuperBowl. I feel like the Dutch are really, truly, my people. I'm still trying to convince @Delish to move there.
 

Carson

Sport Bacon
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I was in The Netherlands last week for work and Dutch people are pretty awesome. I, too, am part Dutch. But it was in the 30s all week and everyone rides bikes everywhere. And, they ALL talk about speed and distance skating like it's the SuperBowl. I feel like the Dutch are really, truly, my people. I'm still trying to convince @Delish to move there.

Half-Japanese half-hipster living in The Netherlands? He'd order an S6 Avant before you even closed on a house/windmill.
 
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