view from the archipelago

ceiling decorations

2012-01-21T01:23:00.003-08:00

stateline, NV

theater interior

2012-01-21T01:23:00.001-08:00

san francisco, CA

quote of the moment

2012-01-19T22:22:00.001-08:00

"...it's usually better to have friends or benign acquaintances in the world than enemies."

-- aimee lee ball

quote of the moment

2012-01-15T11:31:00.001-08:00

"But if you like being taken to the edge of the precipice of gustatory possibility, order some of the restaurant's mega-hot reggae wings, and then top them off with the unadulterated ginger beer. That combination will knock you to the ground and then punch you in the face again. In a good way."

-- LA times speaking of the front page jamaican grille

join boost mobile, get 25 bucks back

2012-01-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

=== BEGIN BLATANT AD ===

i've been using an android on boost mobile for seven months now and think it's great. with no contract, i pay $45/month, unlimited everything* (you'd pay $55/month and then it'd drop $5/month every six months if you were on blackberry or android -- $50/month if you're not in those worlds).

the underlying service is sprint, so it works fine everywhere i tread (and will for you too), except WY (but you don't care about that because you're not cool/primitive enough to go to WY).

i use a samsung prevail, which i like very much (and would love if it had more internal memory), but there are two "better" android phones available now: the ZTE warp and the samsung transform ultra (and another even-better one coming).

of course, you don't even have to step into the android world ... there's a bunch of other phones that run from the primitive to the sleek to the bizarre.

if you join and use my referral code, you get $25 credit ... and so do i. my referral code is: 251995625018. you gotta use it for us to cash.

if you hate boost and drop everything with them, i'll even send you a check for $15 because had to hassle with the bastards in the first place.

* "everything" in this case includes some super funky features like TXT-to-landline -- if you have a landline phone and want me to TXT you on it, send me your number ... i think it's really funny, you might too ... you can even reply! ... oh, and it doesn't cost me anything to do it.

deep insider tip: the best place to buy a boost phone isn't online, but rather at target. they have a 90 day no-questions-asked money back guarantee (60 days longer than boost mobile) and will give you refunds if your phone drops in price in the first 90 days you own it ... i did that with mine, no problem.

=== END BLATANT AD ===

lighting

2012-01-13T00:23:00.001-08:00

las vegas, NV

chandelier (3 treatments)

2012-01-08T15:05:00.001-08:00

las vegas, NV

quote of the moment

2012-01-05T12:06:00.001-08:00

"Consent now to receive gain/loss report electronically"

-- subject line of a charles schwab email

xmas tree ornaments

2012-01-04T11:31:00.001-08:00

las vegas, NV

quote of the moment

2012-01-02T12:03:00.000-08:00

"There's no more guaranteed way to make something feel like a train wreck in slow motion than to make it run like it's a train wreck in slow motion."

-- matt buchanan

quote of the moment

2012-01-02T09:09:00.001-08:00

"L.A. arson probe: Person of interest had 'creepy' smile, witness says"

-- LA times

merry xmas NOT

2011-12-24T13:28:00.002-08:00

shoes in negative; lakewood, CO

rule of thumb of the moment

2011-12-24T13:28:00.001-08:00

if you find yourself screaming, "THIS IS WHAT I'M TRYING TO EXPLAIN TO YOU!"* your approach probably isn't working.

*overheard in a parking lot in arvada, CO

quote of the moment

2011-12-19T11:19:00.001-08:00

"FREE BUTTER COOKIES

with the purchase of 2 of the same HP toners"

-- office depot ad

neon

2011-12-15T18:31:00.001-08:00

las vegas, NV

news item of the moment

2011-12-15T09:37:00.001-08:00

"Doris Leech of Wading River thought this object, which appeared near her home Tuesday night, might have fallen from above. Investigators say it is just a piece of wood."

-- riverhead news review

ceiling

2011-12-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

las vegas, NV

storefront

2011-12-13T00:33:00.001-08:00

las vegas, NV

quote of the moment

2011-12-12T11:01:00.001-08:00

"50 cent plans to 'check out' lindsay lohan's 'playboy's pics"

USA today headline

quote of the moment

2011-12-09T10:48:00.001-08:00

"every friday is black friday"

-- office depot ad

bus that carried charles manson

2011-12-04T18:42:00.001-08:00

las vegas, NV

ceiling

2011-12-03T07:31:00.001-08:00

paradise, NV

geranium

2011-11-27T12:11:00.001-08:00

mountain view, CA

camellia

2011-11-27T11:59:00.001-08:00

mountain view, CA

zinnias

2011-11-27T11:58:00.001-08:00

mountain view, CA

signs

2011-11-21T18:50:00.001-08:00

FLL

highway sign

2011-11-20T11:44:00.001-08:00

fort lauderdale, FL

plaza view (3 variants)

2011-11-20T06:21:00.001-08:00

cartagena, spain.

parthenon oculus (5 effects)

2011-11-05T14:19:00.001-07:00

rome, italy.

church interior

2011-11-04T16:01:00.001-07:00

rome, italy.

bidet fixture

2011-11-04T05:35:00.001-07:00

rome, italy.

quote of the moment

2011-11-03T16:03:00.001-07:00

"i think we're always trying to create a consistent narrative for ourselves.i think truth always takes a backseat to narrative.truth has to sit at the back of the bus."

-- chuck klosterman

door sign

2011-10-31T13:07:00.001-07:00

rejkavik, iceland

trivium of the moment

2011-10-25T13:04:00.001-07:00

on average, people will lose one pound every four years if they have a daily serving of yogurt in their diet.

-- harvard researchers, NEJM

quote of the moment

2011-10-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

"Maybe the virgin birth rattlesnakes are minions of God."

-- b1-67er

another craigslist flake

2011-10-16T13:02:00.001-07:00

505-290-7475 (his name is something like jason)

agreed to buy a pair of concert tickets from me ... first by TXT, then by voice, but when the concert time approached, he did not return my phone calls or TXTs.

avoid doing any business of any kind with him.

my taxes for 2010

2011-10-14T13:45:00.001-07:00

just worked them out ... for CA NV and the US federal government *combined* I owed a total of $21 for the year ...

... and all of that was to CA, a state I only lived in for a few months.

sun and luxor hotel in color negative

2011-10-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

paradise, NV

ceiling

2011-10-11T18:05:00.001-07:00

paradise, NV

when did steve jobs die? survey says ...

2011-10-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

let me start by saying i'm not in any way a conspiracy theorist, nor am i a guy who likes to whack the bee hive just to see what happens (well, not more than once ... but i was a kid). one guy shot kennedy. americans walked on the moon. that's the way it is.

but i do know that high tech is full of smoke and mirrors. i've been involved with MANY demos, announcements and briefings that were either not wholly factual, or intentionally misleading. you can read the pages here and you'll see that i'm a person filled with self-doubt, but there's one thing i'm certain of ... i'm one of the very best demoers in america. i understand, breathe and can promote in a demo fashion better than anyone i know. i've won every major demo award the valley offers. i cut my teeth demoing for apple. i learned by watching carnies and taking apple courses.

i don't follow apple (or steve) conversations online, so i may be missing a beat here, but i haven't heard anyone talking about the date of steve jobs death. doesn't it strike you as odd that it's the day after a major product announcement? isn't it strange that nothing was said about, or recorded by, SJ during the release? haven't you noticed that absolutely no details have been published about it?

could it be coincidence? sure. hey, i've been dealt a royal flush on a video poker machine with no draws ... i know lightning can strike.

but i also know this "culture," this company, these people and the importance of these kinds of matters.

i'm the first to admit that a person's date of death truly doesn't matter, but the deeper workings here fascinate me.

i sent an email to my pals and wanted to record the thread here. every person (save one) has worked at apple. the large minority knew steve personally.

my initial email:

sirs,

i have a theory and would love to hear your comments. what if ...

steve jobs didn't actually die yesterday, but instead died on something like the 3rd or the 4th?

doesn't the timing of his departure seem odd relative to the new product release? and the fact that absolutely nothing was said about him there?

sure, sure, it could be that he actually died yesterday and that's what happened. but there's not a whole lot of detail coming out.

i'm not saying this is what happened, but i am saying it seems pretty strange to me.

all comments encouraged,
b1

***

cap'n happy

I say it's a compelling conspiracy theory.

But then, everyone thinks I'm an asshole and making up shit just to start an argument.

***

non-apple southerner (and my favorite response)

I'm more of the opinion that he did die on the 5th. But I'm going to go with they kept him "Alive" until then. Today people die when we stop whatever mechanisms keeping the patient "Alive".

If it was some extremely painful end then there would have been much morphine involved and I'd consider the last bit not really living. Could have been he was on a ventilator etc. and they pulled the plug only after the marketing announcement.

So I would say less that they didn't want to leak the news of his death but rather the family/friends would have wanted him to have still been here for his last release. I think he would have probably wanted that as well (I would have if I were in his place).

Hope that helps fuel the conspiracy fire.

***

former office-mate and juggler. the person who got me into apple.

Interesting story on managing the goodbyes:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/With-Time-Running-Short-Jobs-nytimes-175542823.html;_ylt=AkUB4mZvqDo4Hf9DiE_83JG7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2cTEybzdrBHBvcwMxMgRzZWMDdG9wU3RvcmllcwRzbGsDd2l0aHRpbWVydW5u?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=

He managed everything, so it would not be a stretch to believe that he
managed the news of his death to avoid overshadowing the next phone.

***

mr. crypto

It's just as plausible that he's not yet dead and this is all timed to best-support launching the biography by Walter Isaacson.

***

a member of the original mac team

I believe that before the fact, this would be something that people (including Steve) gave great thought to, but after the fact, it doesn't seem to matter much.

***

zed zed

I personally think this is crazy talk. Everyone knows that Jobs died about a year ago. Apple has cleverly used Keith Richards as a stand-in for Jobs at public events and now Keith has gained too much weight to continue the role.

Jeesh.

me and steve jobs

2011-10-06T04:16:00.000-07:00

i've been surprised at how many people have talked to me in the last 10 hours about the death of steve jobs and the future of apple ... i worked there for seven years, almost 20 years ago, but it seems to leave this indelible impression on others. my youthful passion ran high there only because i worked in the best conceivable group, with the best possible people, in a company that mimicked a 10 year old boy's dream fort. like someone dating a super-model, i was two orders of magnitude out of my league. and loved it.

when i worked in the valley i was lucky in that i brushed shoulders with some of the biggest of the big. cursed in that it never ended up having any serious financial meaning.

i have several good steve jobs stories ... a couple i'd like to put down after talking with pals about it, but i'll give you this one for now.

***

we had a decade long tradition of juggling at apple and the atrium of new-ish R&D campus was the perfect spot. as long as someone in our juggling clique worked at apple, that's where we would go practice. the spring of 1998 was an even numbered year and that meant bo3b was working at apple. juggling on campus? easy. i didn't even have to use the fact that i knew all the security guards to get in.

steve jobs was recently back on the terra firma in a big way and heads were rolling. projects, and in some cases, entire departments, were catching the axe. most -but not all- of the chop was to fat from the crazed pepsi cola years of too many egos and not enough people who actually understood what a legitimate financial direction should be for a latter 20th century technology company. (if you missed what it was like, don't worry, you'll get to see this happen all over again with ms. whitman at the wheel of HP.)

employee fear ran high. there was a good chance that anything you said on email could (and would) be read. you watched your back, turned in your status reports, never played the video games in the hall and, for damn sure, never got in an elevator with steve.

that is, if you actually cared about your job and what it meant. my friend bo3b ran in a higher playing field. he worked hard and (way more than frank sinatra) did things his way.

juggle in the atrium while steve jobs is working just upstairs? you bet.

every time we'd get out the props and start, dozens of people would say something along the lines of "steve jobs will fire your ass." i thought it was unlikely, but maybe possible? and anyway, it wasn't my ass on the line. i get banned and, what? steve takes his wand and makes the security guards not know me any more?

bo3b wouldn't even discuss the matter. he was so much cooler than that. more fearless. and hey, he didn't really need that job anyway.

every monday we'd cause a ruckus. and every monday we'd never see steve.

weeks went by like this with nay sayers getting ever more adamant ... you could sense the disappointment in their people whenever they'd see the two, three or five of us going at it.

one day steve will bring down the hammer ... oh yes ... he will.

and then one day steve walked in. i knew he was in the building before i even saw him because people always acted differently around him ... like the way water behaves after you throw a pebble in it. he was talking to someone i didn't know, a valley insider and techie -but not an apple guy- probably someone from pixar (a company he still ran at that time).

he stopped and watched us for a couple of seconds as his accomplice yammered on, then went away.

"hey bo3b, think you're gonna get a call from steve's office this afternoon?"

"i guess i'll find out."

the call never came.

the next week we were juggling and in the middle of a ten club feed, just beyond the pattern, i could see steve on the second floor railing looking down at us. a couple minutes later, he was down with on the first floor and he beckoned me over.

"hi steve."

"hey. are you guys going to be here tomorrow?"

"no. we only juggle on mondays. why?"

"oh. my daughter was going to be in and i wanted to show you off to her."

"bring her on a monday and we'll do it."

which we eventually did. (just for the record, SJ's daughter was sorta bored by it all.)

months passed. as christmas neared, apple put a christmas tree in the atrium. a big one. right in the middle of our juggling spot. we juggled a bit, kinda cramped to the side and steve walked by. he stopped and watched a bit.

"you guys are pretty good."

bo3b was quick on the draw, "we'd be better if this fucking tree wasn't in our way!"

steve laughed. he went to lunch, came back, watched a little more, then went upstairs.

when we came in to juggle on the following monday, the christmas tree had been moved to one side of the atrium.

quote of the moment

2011-10-04T19:17:00.001-07:00

"I'm finding myself into a lot of swedish crime fiction." (sic)

-- ms. liberace

quote of the moment

2011-10-03T01:37:00.001-07:00

"a lot of bad people are deeply unimaginative."

-- entropy dave

quote of the moment

2011-10-02T23:06:00.001-07:00

"new york is about status. that's ALL it is about. this is not a pleasant city to live in aside from the fact that there are a lot of people here who are ambitious."

-- tom wolfe

aquarium

2011-10-01T22:44:00.001-07:00

clark county, NV

yellowman and his philosophy on life

2011-10-01T22:37:00.001-07:00

be nice.
if you can't be nice, be good.
if you can't be good, be careful.
if you can't be careful, merry christmas.

yellowman in color positive and negative

2011-10-01T21:35:00.001-07:00

clark county, NV

black balloons in color negative

2011-10-01T15:08:00.001-07:00

las vegas, NV

similarities in concept

2011-09-30T02:38:00.001-07:00

a leeching cliff side and a piece of pottery...i just happened to run across both of these things independently in the last fortnight.

found note

2011-09-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

i dropped into a crepe place in DC to have a MX coke and charge my phone ... killing time before my dinner with d4rw1n and tomasino baby.

on the floor there was a meticulously written note on two 3x5 yellow post-its. without looking at it closely, i could tell it was something of fairly extreme importance ... i picked the bent notes up and put them on my table, assuming the owner may well come back, but after a l-o-n-g time no one showed up so i read it.

i'm *guessing* this is a rough draft of a bigger letter that was being written in long hand, but i thought the whole thing was fascinating and wanted to post it on here for my future reference.

(following is the entirety except there's something written in the top margin that i can't make out ... i may figure it out later ... if anyone wants to see the note, i'll take a high res shot of it and put it up with this.)

***

this weekend i learned a lot. i don't know why i never believed you when you would say that i am #1 in your life and you once again proved my gut feeling to be right. i tell you that your dad is throwing "darts" little jabs at me & what do you do? you get mad at me and have me talk to your mom. i'm tired of you not choosing me & frankly, i'm fed up. i deserve to be first in someone's life and clearly i'm not in yours. i have never done to anything to you to have reasons not to be #1 in your life. i can't believe i faught (sic) w/ my family to stand up for you when clearly you can't do the same. i'm sorry but i think we need some time apart. i'm moving out this weekend. i need to have time to see if this marriage

[next post-it] is even worth fighting for. i need someone who always are (sic) behind me 100% and i don't have that w/ you.

poster

2011-09-27T04:56:00.001-07:00

ATL

window

2011-09-26T23:23:00.001-07:00

washington DC

sculpture

2011-09-26T23:22:00.001-07:00

washington DC

light fixture

2011-09-25T20:04:00.001-07:00

washington DC

reflection of the capitol building

2011-09-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

washington DC

painting

2011-09-13T19:36:00.001-07:00

las vegas, NV

ceiling light

2011-09-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

paradise, NV

neon sign

2011-09-09T19:30:00.001-07:00

paradise, NV

ceiling in color negative

2011-08-31T21:50:00.000-07:00

DEN

wall signs

2011-08-31T21:17:00.001-07:00

DEN

sculpture In negative

2011-08-31T21:09:00.001-07:00

DEN

ceiling lights -- 5 exposures, 6 images (in sepia)

2011-08-30T16:16:00.001-07:00

las vegas, nv

light fixture -- 2 views

2011-08-29T17:16:00.001-07:00

paradise, nv

jockey vending machine

2011-08-29T16:22:00.001-07:00

las vegas, nv

woman and aquarium

2011-08-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

paradise, nv

2 antler chandeliers with light beam (negative)

2011-08-26T20:31:00.001-07:00

paradise, nv

antler chandelier -- 8 views

2011-08-26T19:20:00.001-07:00

paradise, nv

impatience in color negative

2011-08-26T18:39:00.001-07:00

paradise, nv

quote of the moment

2011-08-26T11:24:00.001-07:00

"...when I hold back how I feel about things, that actually changes how I experience them."

anonymous

piggy bank

2011-08-20T17:52:00.001-07:00

las vegas, NV

quote of the moment

2011-08-14T13:57:00.001-07:00

"the people who hold the 80s at the highest level of reverence are those who don't remember the 70s."

-- solid goldstein

lava lamp

2011-08-06T17:09:00.001-07:00

las vegas, NV

2 perspectives on a rainbow

2011-08-01T17:02:00.001-07:00

wheat ridge, CO

quote of the moment

2011-07-31T12:22:00.001-07:00

people are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
forgive them anyway.
if you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
be kind anyway.
what you spend years blinding, someone could destroy overnight.
build anyway.
if you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous.
be happy anyway.
the good you do today, people will forget tomorrow.
do good anyway.
give the world the best you have and it may never be good enough.
give the world the best you have anyway.
you see, in the final analysis it is between you and god.
it was never between you and "them" anyway.

-- mother theresa

sour cream raisin pie

2011-07-31T09:48:00.001-07:00

omaha, NE

quote of the moment

2011-07-31T07:25:00.001-07:00

"i hate the mississippi...its wild and filthy waters, boiling and eddying...how uncertain is traveling in this region of high pressure...i cannot help feeling a disgust at the idea of perishing in such a vile sewer to be buried in mud and perhaps too be rooted out again by some pig-nosed alligator.

-- frederick "cap'n feddy" marryat

RAGBRAI day 4

2011-07-30T19:56:00.001-07:00

my super sun protection worked SO well yesterday, and my skin healed SO much, that I've decided to ride in sweats again. I didn't get them washed from yesterday, but I have hung them inside out all night

I accidentally left the GPS on on my phone last night and as a result had no battery to take pictures today...

in a way, I got lucky because this was the least scenic day so far...but out also brings up a new challenge...

2 days ago I realized I've been riding without lip balm of any kind...my brother and I happened to be in a casey's (the 7-11 of iowa) and I bought a blistex then, but her didn't hand it to me...repeated reminders have had no effect and as I sit here riding, out feels like I've ben sucking on a jalapeno for the last week...not a good sign.

I pull into another casey's and look at myself in the mirror...i look fine.completely, totally normal...

I touch my lips and they're unbelievably tender...and actually, it's only the bottom one..
I look closer, and then I see it...i have a second degree sunburn running the entirety of my lower lip...the whole thing is one, complete (yet thin) blister...now THIS,i wasn't expecting...even with as fair as I am, I haven't sunburn my lips since I was a kid...and this is completely a weird one, because even though it feels like I'm chewing on a porcupine when I make any facial expression, or talk, it's completely undiscernable on my face.

I get a stick of carmex, slather some on, feel immediately better, ads have a strong ride....toward the end,i start to drag a bit and stop at one of the RAGBRAI roadside vendors for a sno-cone...something about that just sounds right.

just like when I was 10, I get half grape, half blue raspberry, AND IT IS*SO* good.it's so god that I just sit and giggle on the grass...it's so good that I order another one and IT is just as good.

I loved these as as kid and I'd completely forgotten about them.it was before college, and sex, and stupidity, and career, and lack of raises, and friends getting rich and them not speaking to me. it was before econogeddon, and continual cars, and wives filing for divorce on my birthday.it was before stammering on stage, agonizing for days about a present and then having to return it.

but it was during my schwinn pea picker days, and assuming my dad wasn't drinking at that moment, those were good times. it was me and john verma playing the monopoly championship of the world (and him crying when I won). it was watching heat lighting on sleeping bags on the lawn. AND IT WAS 19¢ HALF GRAPE AND HALF BLUE RASPBERRY SNO-CONES AT HENDERSON'S.

I get up and ride as though I once won the tour, but forgot about it and moved on to better things.

we're over-nighting at boone -which also has a strip club- and (clothed) strippers meet us at the city limits (much to the dismay of many locals).

of all the cities we'd come to, this had the warmest welcome, so far....people on lawn chairs applauding as w pass...one kid runs out in the street and relays me a grape flavor-ice.

I get into camp giddy and fully amped up.

this I'll finish not only finish, I'll finish strong.

RAGBRAI day 3

2011-07-29T22:50:00.001-07:00

90 miles of ride had been too much, but not how you might imagine...and now I officially have my first legitimate problem of the ride...

in the last two days, the combination of humidity, my body hear and sweat had neem working my sunscreen off...even with repeated applications...as a result, I have extremely bad sunburn on the tops of my legs, just above the knee, the backs of both calves, my brow, and tiny exposure spots on my neck and wrists...it's almost second degree in all spots...i can't take another day our something seriously bad will happen.

(people always wonder why I wear long sleeve shirts when I ride...not as much of a mystery more...)

I don't smoke, barely drink and have never done an illegal or ellict drug in my life. I have super longevity in my family...but the one place I have HUGE risk is skin cancer...the ONLY way I could be at bigger risk is to have more sunburns.

I could sit a day out...that's certainly the safest...but I didn't drive 1000 miles to watch other people rode bikes...

the big problem here is I need a radical solution...i need something BETTER than "adequate protection"because my skin needs to rest and heel.

so I'm going to try an idea...

i decide to buy a pair of cycling liners and wear my track suit bottoms...while it's true that the temperatures have been tickling 100, I'm used to the "covered with clothing" concept in the heat (i never even wear shorts any more) AND I've been doing a lot of sauna and stream time since living in vegas, so my heat tolerance is pretty high.

yes, it'll make me look like a 1970s 8th grade retard, but it MIGHT mean I can ride with much lesser risk.

and it'll become real obvious, real fast, if it's a bad idea.

10 minutes into the ride, it's clear I've picked a winner. the first 5 are hour, but once I started sweating, everything cooled fast. I'd bought some 50 SPF t-shirts on a whim at cabella's and it's EASILY the most comfortable cycling top I've ever worn (including all jeery's).

the ride today is ultra senic, with a ton of great sights...in fact,i shoot so much, my camera starts to run low on battery.

I get into carroll and have a long conversation important with am info booth volunteer...most of it centered around the fact that carroll uses an image of the las vegas strip tip advertise their city on their web site...since the woman I'm talking to is a school teacher, during the majority of the conversation I'm asking questions like, "so would you say teaching children devotion, our plagiarism is more important?"

by the end, she's laughing so hard she's crying ... my first contact with a person of ANY type today since when you're dressed like a muslim bike rider, you are shunned like plague carrying vermin.

I go to taco john's for infinite drink refills and hear from my brother for the first time in nearly 2 days...

when he does up, I'm shaken to my very core...

he looks *TERRIBLE*. easily the worst I've seen EVER.he's red as a chery tomato...he's irritable, mildly incoherent and dull...it's a combo of sunburn and heat prostration, to be sure, but there's something else.

I'm not sure he should be riding tomorrow, but I'm not going to stop him.

so in the conservation of weather parity, on b1 sites had moved forward, one had moved back.

nobody said this was going to be easy, but only in my worst dreams did I think it might be this hard.

2011 RAGBRAI day 2

2011-07-27T19:44:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Jul 27, 2011 9:37 PM
Subject: 2011 RAGBRAI day 2
To: <blog@gmail.com>

with a ride this short, the key day is day 2...and you don't know anything until you wake up...

maybe the day before has been to harsh and you're just going to cronenberg on the first incline...our maybe it's all going to be cakewalk.

today was the day with the most vertical gain of the entire ride...about a mile, so if things could go bad, in would probably be here.

I slept 6 hours straight -and while it was shorter than my preferred 9- it was still solid.

mounting my bike was easy, with no saddle soreness of any kind...my combination of 5 advil during the day along with 2 generous helpings of bag balm, seemed to be doing the trick.

overall all the riding was a breeze...i started off solid and got stronger as the heat climbed...

I ran into my brother at the one stroke Ice cream place and we rode a bit together. when we pulled into kimballton (i think) and along with the town pull-out-the-stops-for-ragbrai antics, they had a constitution quiz...i told the iowa high school sweeties that my brother and I would take the test together in collaboration -- the same way the constitution itself was done.

we missed 4 of the dozen or so, fairly difficult questions. being hot, tired and exerted doesn't help...nothing else could explain why I choose jefferson as the father of the constitution over madison.

but we were split on the last question...it was a question of what collective rights were granted by the bill of rights and my brother and I disagreed...i noted that to the proctor, and it turned out *i* was right, but my brother with the political science degree was wrong.

we were given a free constitution for partaking in the event...i forced that document on my brother, saying he clearly needed to study more than I did...and *I* took a US flag pin.

I asked if missing that many questions meant I would have my passport revoked....problematic since I had to go to italy in november.

they got remarkably serious "no! no! no!"

then I asked if my test scores were going to be sent to homeland security...it was right about here that they more-our-less quit talking to me.

our "group leader," the pal of my brother's, has set us up and some mildly higher-brow camps, but when I pull into atlantic, there's no hint as to where my bags would be picked up to carry them forward, AND one of my shoes also managed to completely delaminate a sole.

I keep trying to contact everyone possible as I go through the notions out buying a new pair of shoes (not nearly as cool as my purple and orange northwaves).

the cell service here is terribly blocked up, thanks to the rolling city that's moving with us...AT&T customers aren't working at all -- and it's REALLY pissing off all the snooty Iphone users.

finally I realize, hey man, I've got all my camping stuff right here...I'll just camp.

so I do.

ignoring local fare, I opt instead for pizza hut...something about unlimited ice tea and air comforting sound really really good right about now.

our waitress is named "mistery," and I ask her if that's a real name, or if she's just picked out something fake because she's hot, doesn't want people to know her real name and had intentionally misspelled so it would look "real."

not only is it her real name (her parents wanted a son and hadn't picked a boy's name), she thinks this comment is absolutely hilarious and gives us the shockingly better service than anyone else in the joint (even going so fat as to give) my ice tea in a to go cup).

as we left she said, "i really appreciate you guys paying attention. I get customers in here every day who don't even know my name."

I don't know how that's possible. her name tag is on her right boob for chrissakes...

...and I'm not even a boob guy.

day 1 RAGBRAI pix

2011-07-25T12:18:00.001-07:00

RAGBRAI 2011 day 1

2011-07-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

the topography of IA is such that the bumper portions are near the rivers...that means that the beginning and end days tend to be the hardest.

65 miles of rolling hills, with about a mile of elevation gain total was the order of the day...

I slept terribly last night...three hours, interrupted...but even so, that was three hours more than I got before the big ride in 1998 AND I had to cross the cascades in the snow that day...

relatively speaking, this should be a snap.

even though I was awake, involuntarily, at 05:00, through a series involving lazing in bed, repacking/experimenting with my bag and the most ignoble of sins, not knowing where the luggage truck actually was, my brother and our mutual friend (richard - who also happens to be my brother's brother-in-law) didn't hit the road until 07:45.

we rode packed together for a bit, but it wasn't long before richard and I had split from my brother...and then before we became split from each other.

10,000 people is a massive number and the focus of many people is either food, music, drinking, our some combination thereof.

riding in the pack feels like being a single leg on a millipede and you have to pay constant and continual attention to people near and in front of you.

I've ridden the vast majority of my life solo... and it's not that I don't know how to ride in a pack (I'm actually pretty good at it) it's that psychologically it washes me a little bit.

after downing a sugar pepsi, and two granola bars, pre-ride, i made my first stop several miles in to have a "breakfast bowl" -- scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns (covered with cheese), chased by a yogurt/granola parfait, and washed by two bottles of gatorade.

and then it wasn't much further down the road before I pulled over for free beer. yes it's true that I barely drink -and don't drink beer at all-, but when else am I going to get endorsed booze on this ride?

the fact that it was 10:30 in the morning had absolutely no bearing on my answer.

from there, it was rolling hills, (state fair winning) honey lemonade, a few bottles of water (including some donated by evangelical christians) and GREAT homemade ice cream (made by gasoline-powered one-stroke engine stirrers).

my brother and I ran across each other twice...once in a random convenience store and once after I'd paid a visit to "mr. medicine man" top up my sunscreen.

the end of the rode for hotter and we began to get a mild head wind...the last 15 miles were nothing more than a hopeful, tiring slog.

hitting town also brought on the confusion of, for the second time today, not knowing where the luggage truck was...this resulted in a 1 mile, 15% grade and completely unnecessary detour.

I set up my tent like a zombie...negotiated with richard and my brother over food -- finally deciding on the easy answer of pizza hut...in between making runs to charge my cell phone and replace my now-nearly-completely failed shoes.

but all that AC? and all that ice tea? it's what the doctor ordered.

hot showers were 5 bucks, but I ciudad get a cold one with a swimming pool admission...which is what I did.

grit off -including the salt that'd developed from the ride- and some dermal osmosis was the right answer.

so was bed.

RAGBRAI prelude

2011-07-24T05:46:00.001-07:00

as you know all too well, dear reader, I avoid posting items of a personal nature...but for reasons I'm not entirely clear on, I've decided to post the bicycle trip thread of the following week to here...

normally this diatribe would go over to wenderbender, but I'm thinking of folding that entire operation over here--especially since jetblue had canceled all you can jet....so I might was well see how that feels.

hopefully this isn't a sign of me getting completely out of hand..if so, and I ultimately end up posting pictures of myself flashing gang symbols while drunk, do my readership a favor and just kill me...in fact, I'll go one step further -- kill me if you think that *might* happen.

having said all that...

my brother and I have talked about riding the register's annual great bicycle ride across across iowa (RAGBRAI) for years...since this is year is the 39th, we've probably considered it like something since the third or 4th year...

for reasons I'm not clear on (and don't actually care about), a bunch of people b1-67er did the american lung association big ride across america (the big ride) with have decided to do this year's RAGBRAI...and THAT is reason enough for me to give it a go...

entry is through a lottery system, but most people get chosen (it may even be true that if one person on a team gets chosen, all people get chosen)...

ultimately, the method doesn't matter...we learned several weeks ago that out group had been chosen.

the ride's something on the order of 400 miles spread across 7 days. in colorado terms (where I learned to ride) the terrain would be considered dead flat.

it's also hot and humid. I heard on the radio on the way in to greenwood, IA this evening that the temperature will run from 85-100 tomorrow. I have no idea what the humidity well be, but there's been extensive flooding in the immediate area, so 85%+ is a safe bet.

you may wonder what all this means to me...

there's a blog posting on the RAGBRAI web site from a week ago friday that said "if you haven't started training yet, you're too late." on the very day that was posted, i had not ridden my road bike in a decade.

I have, however, ridden it 5 times since then.

I asked king feddy what he thought my odds of completing the ride were, and there was this long, pregnant pause. l-o-n-g. not his normal surfer I'm-rich-but-I'll-act-like-I'm-not pause, but something closer to how-EXACTLY-do-i-tell-my-mom-her-boobs-look-saggy-in-that-dress pause.

but 4 key things come into play here.

1. I am the world's greatest armchair athlete. I can sit around, do nothing, and then fare well in a ride like this. I've climbed MANY 14,000' peaks. I've swam from alcatraz twice. I rode my bike 4x before riding across america. after that, I didn't ride for a year newbie I did ride the rockies. and then I didn't ride for a year before I did the next ride the rockies.

2. the reason I can do this is partially due to freak physiology...i have super-longevity on my family...my testing heart rate is 45 bears per minute...and...

3. stuff like this is 95% a mental game and 5% equipment. when you've got a forehead the size of mine, mental games aren't that tough.

4. oh yeah, AND I'm actually in pretty good shape right now. I do something aerobic at least three days a week. I do pushups (out more) two days a week..

now it's true that, aside from wearing a chain out and replacing it, I have never tuned this bike. and it's true too that my cycling shoes delaminated the first day I rode them last week. and it's also true that my ultegra sifters swallowed my rear derailleur cable for completely unknown reasons...

but I honestly don't think I'm being *overly* hopeful when I say that I'm not expecting troubles.

this ride is gigantic. 10,000+ people. the mere size of the ride will dwarf many of the towns we ride through. it is a plague of locusts that is welcomed by town businesses, but shunned by the townsfolk forced to deal with a busload of lycra clad 20-somethings in a pink school bus with a reindeer on top, along with 9,970 others.

my original plan was to post a map here of my exact location as I went...but the technology is just a touch too complicated...and you have to be careful or (just like 24hotv 2) technology will dominate the center and completely take over.

focus is important.

I'll probably be on the road in a little more than 8 hours...

...and I'm the last to bed...

...this won't be the last time this happens on this ride.

wind turbine blade

2011-07-23T13:45:00.001-07:00

york, NE

sign

2011-07-23T10:04:00.001-07:00

kearney, NE

lunch

2011-07-22T13:28:00.001-07:00

grilled artichoke, fried pickles and brie with mushrooms; edgewater, co

underpass graffiti

2011-07-22T10:54:00.001-07:00

golden, co

black widow in my garage

2011-07-20T11:43:00.001-07:00

las vegas, nv.

didn't take the time to get a nice clean shot.

trivia of the moment

2011-07-19T16:52:00.001-07:00

the odds of any american male developing cancer in an invasive site: 44%

odds that this cancer will kill him: about 50/50

source: american cancer society

3 views of buildings

2011-07-19T02:36:00.001-07:00

black and white, color negative and natural color with a mild zoom; las vegas, nv

awning and light fixtures

2011-07-18T19:20:00.001-07:00

las vegas, nv

gerber daisy with lily grass

2011-07-18T19:19:00.001-07:00

las vegas, nv

lobby view

2011-07-18T18:00:00.001-07:00

las vegas, nv

trivia of the moment

2011-07-18T00:36:00.001-07:00

to this point in time, 45,000 americans have applied to be astronauts; 330 have been accepted.

-- associated press

thrill of the moment

2011-07-14T10:36:00.001-07:00

playing rip off (my favorite classic video game) with bo3b (my
favorite video doubles partner) at california extreme (my favorite
geek fest).

wall mural

2011-07-13T19:42:00.001-07:00

mojave, ca

awning

2011-07-13T19:41:00.001-07:00

mojave, ca

small cactus in sepia tone

2011-07-12T18:31:00.001-07:00

san jose, california.

Ice cream flavor of the moment

2011-07-12T18:24:00.001-07:00

"late night snack" at ben & jerry's

vanilla beam ice cream with a salty caramel swirl & fudge-covered potato chip clusters...remarkably good.

color negative wall mural

2011-07-12T17:27:00.001-07:00

san jose, ca

Haiku of the moment

2011-07-12T00:04:00.001-07:00

Writing as I walk - voice recognition working - living the future