The Day the Music Died

When I got to work today I found the Blogger site blocked by "corporate". Not a good thing, as it means that this blog as we know it becomes a shell of its former self. And in some ways it probably marks yet another nail in the coffin of my working here. As it is this job is a bit on the brutal side in terms of the commute. And sitting on the train writing to an imaginary audience is one of the things I do to keep myself occupied. With this latest development it likely means my commute gets less interesting, more of a drone. These things happen. Life goes on.

It's possible I can still cobble together some blog posts but going home and posting them is less interesting to me than being able to do it from work. Is it only a matter of time before Big Brother blocks all the sites that keep me entertained here? Walk around the office and you see people reading books (seriously), or news sites, ESPN, checking their stocks. It's inaccurate to think that you can stop people from taking a break by being more Draconian.

Oh well. Perhaps this just means I read more, something I've been really grooving on these days anyway. I finished off Fierce Invalids this morning which was totally new to me. I don't remember having ever read that before. I also started Wyrd Sisters which is book 6 in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchet. It's a good series of silliness that serves as perfect "tweener" reading material, such as when you're standing on the subway platform or on the subway itself, or even after a long day at work. I always have 2 books, one which requires attention and one mindless read.

The Blogger block failed anyway. I was irritated so I took the Blackberry into the John with me and wrote this. So I would have merely done my business but now I'm sitting here on the can finishing this off. OK so I can't publish from work but I can write and publish later. So for now, that's my plan. Long live The Blogging Can!!!

Gluttony

Some days you have a hard time getting out of bed. Today was one of those days but my reason is different than normal. My alarm rang and my little girl was cuddled up with me. So I hit snooze and got back in bed, where she climbed up on me and laid on my arm. As much as I wanted to stay there I had to wiggle free and get up. I covered her up and got ready for work. A lot of people scoff at sleeping with your kid, especially when they're almost 20 months. But to me, this is one of life's best moments. I don't know what other people think and frankly I don't care. But if she stays in bed with us until she's 5 I won't complain about it. These moments, they don't last forever.

Had a scratchy throat overnight and woke up in the middle of the night with a brutal sore throat. Considerably better this morning but also congested. This is a bone fide old-fashion cold. Nothing earth-shattering but just a step behind today. Feeling a little loopy is all, a tad light in the head for sure. All of my germ-phobia actions can't keep me 100% cold free.

Jake

"did walt really eat 22 pizza bites? good lord."

I suppose it's true though only Walter can say for sure. Tis the season without a doubt, and I'm finding myself happy to go back to work these days lest I eat myself to cardiac submission at home. Not sure how I'm going to handle the 11 days off to end the year. I may force myself to adhere to a minimum of water, fruits, and veggies through those 11 days as well as a maximum of beer. I've yet to drop the last 3 pounds of my vacation weight so I could go into it behind the 8 ball. We already have 4 types of cookies in the house, thanks to Beth for the last 2 not to mention the sugar coated walnuts. I think Woody is planting these nefarious food items in an attempt to slow me down.

As I was afraid it might, my Buddhist Eating has gone to shit over the last month. It seemed so easy at first but now it's hard to maintain. I'm not sweating it too much but it was an effective method which I'll need to revisit after the new year, or before the new year if I know what's good for me, which I don't.

2 pizza bites short of 2 dozen require a lot of thorough chewing. I'm guessing they didn't last terribly long otherwise you'd never be able to get through that many. How many calories is each? 25? 50?

Steve

"2 thumbs up on 100 years of solitude. I hear the Fred's sister is looking for a car. Maybe you could do 2 or 3 blog entries about that."

I chose The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg because of a conversation I had with Matt FatCat. He's reading State of Fear by Crichton right now which sounds like the mainstream version of that book. I looked at the Chrichton book at Penn Station and it lists Lomborg's book in the bibliography. Off the bat it makes me wonder, have all these years of thinking that the liberals were a little more "right" about the state of the world been a big fucking lie? Have I fallen victim to their ability to manipulate media better than the conservatives? I've only read 10 pages or so and I have to finish Fierce Invalids before I pick it up in earnest but it's a bothersome bunch of claims that Lomborg asserts in his introduction. Further, the calm and "objective" manner he uses in the foreword suggests that his arguments will be hard to ignore and certainly unable to shrug off as a kook. I'm very excited to read that book, as well as State of Fear.

It's Wednesday and the weather bites it, though I think this must be good for the trails. All the leaves are down and now the wetness must be making them all a messy slop at this point, which is good for the trails I would think. But that may translate to my not getting any off-road time in this weekend, which will be a big plus for those of you rooting for the road bike to win the Odometer Challenge.

Aslan the Slut

Knocked out book 6 of the Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe series on the train to work today. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated which is always a bonus. But the last page had the "god god god" stuff all over it. That's fine and all but it's really a drum that gets beat to no end. I imagine most people don't get that impression from the movies? I've never seen them so I have no idea. Maybe Aslan is a fuck slut on the silver screen.

A meager 3 day week this week which rocks. On Friday I have a lot of free time so I'm going to pick up a used road bike I'm buying from one of the guys on the site. $300 for a solid backup bike I can use in bad weather, or just as a straight backup if I need to put the Trek in the basement to give it an overhaul, which I need to do right now. I have new brakes which need to go on but at the same time should I do that before winter even starts? Might not be a good idea. We'll see what the new/used roadie looks like. Hopefully it's good to go immediately then I can take the Trek apart for a good solid tuneup.

The roadie versus trainer race is hot, with the roadie at 1988 miles and the trainer at 1981 miles. Basically it's down to the next ride. Whichever bike gets pulled out for the next non-mtb ride wins the race to 2000. But since I end the year with 10 straight days off work I think the roadie will win the overall race. As a side note I have 811 on the mountain bike, so I'm 220 miles short of 5000 total miles on the year. With 20 days left that comes out to 11 miles a day, total. I'm liking my chances right now. We shall see.

Excitement!

Riding is going well, more or less. Friday was trainer, Saturday Chimney Rock, then I did a pair of tempo-ish rides in the swamp Sunday and Monday. It's funny because I've changed my opinion of the swamp riding. I used to think that it being flat was really easy and did not give you a good workout. But now I see that for the fallacy that it is. The reality is that pancake-flat riding can be some of the toughest riding you can do on a road bike. There's no rest, no coasting, constant effort. Now if you cruise along at 16 mph you're not going to get a lot of benefit, admittedly. But if you keep a nice solid tempo or even threshold pace, that's a lot of work and that's what I'm aiming to pile up as much as I can right now. Lots of tempo to build a good base to fall back on once the racing season starts. This morning was just another quick trainer session to add on to that. Off for the next 2 days.