jawqore

well, it's a year ago today that i broke my jaw while racing bikes up in wisconsin.  yeah, traumatic to say the least - i was in the hospital on morphine for several days, and my mom had to come up there to help me back to san diego (thanks again, mom).  jaw was wired shut for 6 weeks while it mended - that meant a strictly liquid diet for me.  i experimented a lot - i ground up pop tarts, burritos, bratwurst, you name it.  anyway, in memory of that i went and had the 'breakfast of champions' today.  that was pretty much the first oddball creation i came up with - it tasted great back then, and it still tasted great today.  i don't think i'll go back to grinding up burritos, though - they weren't that enticing...

 

 

breakfast of champions (1420 calories)

 

2 chocolate chip pop tarts

2 chocolate boost plus bottles

2 cups 2% milk

2 tablespoons powdered fiber

 

blended down to a pure liquid - no particulate allowed

the achilles

so i was out riding today and i think i finally figured out how i injured my left achilles tendon while i was cycling back in october.  i was climbing a short steep hill today in a pretty heavy gear - so the rpm's were really low - and the 'pulling up' action in my left foot was - shall we say - less than comfortable when i was ripping as hard as i could.  doesn't help that i hadn't ridden in a week and a half, and then that was only 1 night of track racing (high rpm racing) and that i hadn't ridden for an additional week and a half before that.  so yeah, low rpm, high stress pulling up movements in my left achilles.  not so good...  you can think of the pulling up movement being the opposite of a calf raise exercise - instead of your calf working to push the weight down, you've got the calf/tendon working to pull the weight up.  and so back in october, i had just come off a lot of high rpm track training and went in to lower rpm road training - especially climbing hills in really low rpms - and in retrospect, i totally know the moment that i strained that tendon, too.  wow, such hindsight...  but hey, now i know - and knowing's half the battle.

catcher in the dfw

so i'm just sitting in DFW killing time waiting to go home.  my flight outta jackson was on time - even early getting in to dallas, and it looks like my final flight home will be a-ok.  truly, a minor miracle.

 

anyway, i finished reading 'the catcher in the rye' a couple days ago on my flight out to vicksburg.  not totally sure whether i liked that book or not...  i mean, i never really struggled to get through it - but i wasn't really dying to turn the pages either.  and then you're getting toward the end and the tension keeps on building, but then the book takes a right turn and just dumps you.  huh.  but i guess i can appreciate the theme of confusion throughout the book.  a longing for more.  or maybe just a longing for something different.  but sometimes a longing for more, sometimes a longing for different, sometimes a distaste for everything that surrounds me and the constraints of american society and human nature.  that's the story of my life.  huh.  maybe i liked that book after all.  not so much in the actual words written down on the page, but more so in retrospect of the overarching themes covered.  wow - i totally wasn't expecting that.

 

 

seriously, what happened to the airline industry?

flying out to jackson, ms acouple days ago for the reid visit.  7:25am flight, and the taxi was late getting to my apt - really, not my fault this time - so i was just pushing that 30 minute check-in time barrier.  just made it and got on the flight - american routed through dallas.  but the taxi ride sucked - chatty driver who drove slow - there were other taxis passsing us on the way to the airport.  hellooooo?  trying to get to my flight here....

 

taxi driver:  you ever watch 'to catch a predator?'

me:  yeah, i've seen it before

td:  i love it when they get to the place and get on camera.  what were you gonna do with that girl?'  'nothin.'  they always be saying 'nothing'!  cracks me up every time.

me:  yeah

td:  and they're good with that camera too, man.  usually on tv you just see trained actors, but this is real - you can see right in their eyes...

me:  yep

...

td:  well, i don't know if you're religious or anything...  but it's all about that s-e-x.  i'm saying if there's a sure thing out there then you're just gonna go for it.

me:  hmm

td:  most of the time it's 50-50 you're gonna get it or you're not, but if you've got a sure thing - woooeeee!  i don't care how old she is!

me:  huh

 

yeah, i think he's gonna be on a future episode.  wow.

 

 

so i got into dallas to make my connection to jackson.  get through the labrynth of dfw and get to the gate to find the flight is delayed by 10 minutes - no big deal.  then they announce that the flight is overloaded - with luggage?  they are going to have to bump 12 people from the flight in order to make the weight limit.  huh.  well, i'm not interested in the voucher - i just want to get back to see the reids.  a couple minutes later, they call several people up to the gate - including me - and tell us we've been bumped!  what!  pandemonium ensues.  it doesn't matter that we paid for our tickets - have assigned seats - etc - someone's gonna lose.  the flight wasn't even oversold - it was just too heavy...so there's like 7 of us haggling at the counter for a seat.  the agents are adamant that no one is getting on board.  i lose my cool and have to walk away to simmer down.  then i walk over to the next gate to talk to the supervisor.  standing in line, and then all of a sudden i see 3 of the guys that were waiting for seats walk on board the plane - WHAT?  i get back over to the gate and one of the agents says she's trying to find a seat for me and a seat for this lady.  and snap - i totally just missed out on the 3 seat free-for-all that just went down - wow.  well, the lady is starting to throw a fit, and then the gate agent finds her a seat and ushers her down the entry.  supposedly there's one last seat up for grabs but it's going to this other guy - not me.  huh?  whatever.  gate agent walks down the entry to the plane and comes back with a woman in tears!

 

pulled from plane woman:  but you don't understand - my daughter is in labor right now!  i've got to get on this flight!

me:  ...

agent:  [to the other guy]  ok sir, you're next in line

guy:  ok!

baby mama:  but you don't understand!

agent:  i'm so sorry...

guy:  what'll ya give me if i stay?

agent:  a voucher for $200 on american

baby mama:  i've got to get to jackson!

guy:  hmmm...  no, i'll get on the flight.

agent:  oh...  okay.

baby mama:  nooooooo!!!

agent:  i'm so sorry - we'll give you a voucher for $200.

baby mama:  there's no amount of money that can make up for what i'm missing.

agent:  ...

 

yeah, that was really something.  made me want to pay the guy myself to stay so that the mother could get back to see her daughter.  made me feel like dirt, even though there was nothing i could do.  but that was that.  the agent helped her out and got her a ticket on the next flight (3pm) out to jackson.  now it's my turn, and the agent is looking for a seat.  huh, nothing left on the 3 o'clock.  and nothing left on the remaining 2 later flights?  'oh, and it looks like we're going to have to bump another 12 people from the 3 o'clock...  are you serious?  oh, man...  but what about any other airlines?  delta?  full.  northwest?  full.  usair?  full.  yeah, nothing til tomorrow morning...  what?  no way - totally unsat.

 

so then i thought - well, i guess i could fly in to monroe, la...  that's not *too* much farther from vicksburg, but then i've got to rent a car, etc...  wow, waht a hassle...  'but we'll give you a $200 voucher..."  yeah, whatever, sign me up - let's go.

 

so i get the flight out to monroe - which was leaving in only 20 minutes - hit some serious turbulence on the flight over (thought we might crash for an instant) - then land around 4:30 central.  off the plane and there's 4 rental agencies to choose from - avis, budget, national, and hertz.

 

avis is out of cars.

budget doesn't do one-way rentals

national doesn't do one-way rentals

 

so that leaves hertz - luckily they do one-ways - but they don't have a location in vicksburg!  what?  yeah, the closest location is the jackson airport!  absolutely ridiculous!  but it's not like i've got any choices, so there you go.  i get the car, get on the road, and get to vicksburg by around 6:30.  not too bad in the end result (except that we had to make a jackson trip just to drop off the car), but the process of getting to mississippi totally sucked.

 

 

in summary:

taxi driver or pedaphile?  t.b.d.

airline industry?  whatever.

4th of jul

just purchased a ticket on American:

 

Jul 3

Arrive JAN at 2:30 PM on AA 3439

 

Jul 7

Depart JAN at 7:10 AM on AA 3560

 

Here we go V-burg

One of the reasons I love living in OB

SpongeBob on the balcony...

just hanging out in CLT for a 3 hour layover on my way to sarasota, fl.  last night's red-eye was pretty smooth - i shut my eyes before we lifted off in SD and didn't open them up again until i felt the brakes on the tarmac in charlotte.  still landed at like 3:30am pacific though, so i'm kind of beat.  no clever vegas thoughts on this layover - just simple coffee lovin and email checkin.

good 'ole philly

wow, i picked up some hell of a kind of cold back in philly.  finally just shaking loose of it now - been battling it for days - even had to stay home from work some to just try sleeping it off.  that and pound the nyquil...  yikes.  training went right out the window - so no good.  but then at the same time my buddies jonathan and jacob were both in town - but at separate times - for work.  absolutely ridiculous.  they're in town, i'm under the weather, but the weather was nice and we got some sweet fish tacos, knocked some volleyball around, etc anyway.  wow.  and now i fly out tomorrow night to florida for the 2nd weekend in a row of family reunions!  this time my mom's side for my grandfather's 90th birthday.  nice!  and pretty soon i've got to start planning a trip for the 3rd family reunion - with the reid side - the closest non-family family that i've got - more to come on that later...

so i'm flying back from philly on usair, and we just got done watching 'the astronaut farmer'.  totally brought a tear to my eye when he finally lifted off.  just such a beautiful moment...  following your dreams and never giving up is everything to me.

 

speaking about moments, this weekend was - well, i won't say perfect - all of our flights were delayed at one point or another - but we all made it and it was 'right on time.'  i've never spent any amount of time with any of my extended family on my dad's side - just never really knew them.  i guess maybe when my brother and i were still young and living in pennsylvania maybe we saw our cousins every now and then - but nothing that i remember - and we left pa for ms before i was 6.  then my parents got divorced a couple years later and maybe that sealed the split from that side of the family.  anyway, the only time i remember meeting any of the cousins/aunt/uncle was when my granny mucha passed away back during my freshman year at tech (spring break 1996 - i was 18 years old).  we met them at the funeral parlor and then had a light dinner afterwards.  now of course, we were a bit pre-occupied - it was a funeral after all - but i just remember feeling awkward the entire time - just kind of like - who are these people?  i've never met you before - i don't really feel any attachment to you - i don't even know what to say to you.  we left that funeral and never stayed connected.  nothing.

 

fast forward a couple years and i'm done with grad school.  i decide to move up to philly to pursue rowing and (eventually) find an engineering job - that was from august 2001 to july 2002 - 24/25 years old.  a whole year in philly and i never ever tried to contact anyone who lived there.  why?  i don't know - i guess it just wasn't the right time - i guess i just didn't have the guts - i guess i just wasn't ready yet.

 

fast forward a couple more years and now i'm 30 years old.  out of the blue, my cousin leslie emails my brother and i and invites us to philly for a grand 70th surprise party for her mother - my aunt anna.  there was a small piece of trepidation in the back reaches of my mind, but jason and i jumped on it - of course we would come.  i flew in early, jason came in a bit later, but dad almost missed the whole thing due to cancelled/delayed flights.  we went from the airport straight to leslie's brownstone and got there a little bit late, but luckily aunt anna was just a little bit later.  AKA 'appointed timing'.

 

but what about that elusive moment?  we walked in to leslie's place, and that was it.  no tension in the air.  no awkwardness.  genuine gladness that we were all there together and that maybe we could start anew.  and that was it.  aunt anna came in moments later, and was genuinely surprised.  we and the cousins talked and talked and talked.  dinner was catered and was - of course - excellent.  afterwards, our cousins bobby and elissa went out for drinks with jason and i and just kept on going.  leslie was ready to burst with a baby and tara had child duties, so they couldn't join us.  but i can honestly say that we just cut through the bs and just started acting like family again.  man, it was really beautiful.

 

so now - of course - the responsibility is to keep it going.  keep in contact.  etc.  that won't be a problem...  not any more.

so we ended up getting here to philly only a little over an hour and a half late.  no worries.  time to get a breakfast cheese steak.

so this is just totally officially awesome time now.  flight was supposed to go at 11:59 pm, but there was a 'slight' delay.  were going to board at 12:45 am now.  yeah, then they come on the intercom - actually, didn't even use the intercom, it was broken - announcing that there would be an hour and a half delay til the flight went off.  broken plane.  man, this is starting to get ugly...  you know, sleeping on the red-eye was going to be one thing, but just being restless in the airport is totally not so good.  and if this flight gets all up in our faces and decides to break our noses, then the next one out isn't til 8:30 am getting in to phil town at 4:30 pm.  totally unsat.  so now i'm just posting blogs, uploading some myspace photos, blah, lah, crappity crap.  maybe i'll try a nap.

layover in vegas baby on the way to motown philly.

terminal looks like this:

slot city. lame. too bad it doesn't look more like this:

outside coyote ugly at new york, new york hotel/casino
a couple weeks ago.

catching a red-eye to philly tonight.  yep.

so it's a surprise 70th birthday thingy for an aunt on my dad's side - aunt anna.  dad and bro are flying in tomorrow afternoon, and then we'll all form up like voltron for the dinner party.  should be pretty cool - i haven't seen these relatives since my grandmother on my dad's side passed away - 11 years ago - freshman year in college.  yeah...

 

the only bummer is that one of my best buddies - jonathan snow - is actually in san diego this weekend for work.  absolutely ridiculous!  i'm always flying out to dc for this or that, but the one time he actually comes out here, and i'm out of town.  it's all good though - he doesn't fly out til tuesday morning, so we'll have to tear it up a lil bit on sunday and monday.  yeh!

so i raced bikes this past sunday up at. ontario. just a standard flat, 4-corner, 90 minute crit in the hot summer sun. nothing special, except that it was pretty much the first crit i've done since i crashed really badly last year and broke my jaw. sure, i jumped right back on the track bike after i healed up last year, but i didn't do any road racing - it just wasn't in the plan for that time of the year. anyway, did the race and you know there was a crash, and you know it happened just about 4 bike lengths right in front of me, and you know i had to lock up my brakes and avoid people sprawled out on the pavement and bikes flying everywhere. just ridiculous - it was like a 7 or 8 guy pile-up. no one was seriously injured - just road rash - but man was i freaked out. when you're racing bikes, that fear section is just a part of the brain that you have to switch off because you can't ride scared - that just makes it worse.

so a teammate of mine actually had a helmet cam on during the race, and he got a tiny bit of the crash (before it became a pile-up) on video. most of the vid is somewhat boring - just look at the last 1 minute - that's where the crash occurs...

on the plus side of the race, my teammates dana and daggs got 9th and 11th and so we took home some cash - enough to pay for the gas for the car ride to the race - awesome...

so i just created a myspace page, and i can already tell that's gonna be a total time suck.  yeah, gotta turn it out, bling it out, etc...

http://www.myspace.com/hardqore

so i got a check for $16.24 in the mail from State Farm - my auto insurance company.  they mailed a refund due to a "change in length of driving experience."  so i guess i traded in my 20's for my 30's and 16 dollars and 24 cents.  awesome.

you know, there's pretty much never a dull moment around here.  i mean, if it's not one thing, it's another.

 

ok, so this past sunday - the 27th - some of my friends were having a pub crawl here in ocean beach.  the newly minted doctors - audiologists, to be exact.  anyway, pub crawl and everyone wears a goofy sign on his/her back, etc.  like 10 bars on the agenda with 45 minutes at each bar and a minimum of a drink at each bar - you know, a pub crawl.  anyway, everybody had a goofy sign on their back and it was ear related - mine said "can you hear me now, bitch?" and had a little clip-on ear on it.  ha-ha , funny, people loved it.

 

so we're about halfway through the crawl and we're at a bar called 'the sunshine company'.  a pretty cool bar with a rooftop patio.  anyway, we're hanging out up there having a good time and what not, and are almost getting ready to get off to the next bar.  only like 5 more minutes til leaving time.  i'm off to the side looking over the balcony onto the street and the sunset.  another nice san diego day - a bit cloudy, but still a nice one.  can't complain about the 70 degrees.

 

so i'm just looking at the sunset and around at the scene, etc.  a guy is sitting over at a table nearby and the waitress stops by him to pick up or deliver a drink.  i halfway hear him say to the waitress, "so, is his shirt basically calling all of us bitches?"  i glance his direction and he says, "hey, are you calling all of us bitches?"  the waitress looks kind of perplexed, and i just say, "uhhh, i don't know...  i guess so?"  i turn back to looking at the street, and i guess that's when he throws a pint glass at me - i turn back to look at him - and all i see is a fist right in my face.

 

yeah, the guy jumped over his table and totally clocked me right in the face, breaking my nose and putting a gash in it.

 

totally didn't see that one coming at all.

 

my friends immediately restrain the guy, and he just yells out, "HE CALLED ME A BITCH!!!"  the bar is in pure shock.  meanwhile, i'm like a geyser just spurting blood out of my nose.  ridiculous.  a friend gets me some napkins and i just walk off to the bathroom to survey the damage.  security eventually takes over from my friends and throws the guy out, but not before they get his info.  anyway, i'm in the bathroom just trying to clean up, and i can tell it's broken right away.  yes, it's sad to say, i'm experienced enough with broken bones that i have a pretty good idea whether or not something is broken now.  awesome.

 

anyway, get most of the bleeding to stop and leave the bar for the ER with a friend driving.  after a long wait, i finally get served, get some x-rays, and get 4 stitiches in my nose.  luckily no disfigured nose, so everything should heal just fine.  just on antibiotics and vicotin for the next couple days still.  the stitiches should be out on friday in time for vegas.  i've got a black right eye, and it was really swollen on monday and the early part of today, but it's steadily gone down since.  should be down to normal in the next day or 2.  the bummer was i couldn't race bikes on monday or today like i had planned.

 

anyway, after the hospital visit was over, we made it back in time for the very last stop on the pub crawl - a bar named pacific shores.  i had a shot of tequila just to put an exclamation mark on the whole monstrous evening.  yeah.

so i just finished booking a flight to philly for june

still need to work on a flight to venice, fl

 

june is going to be absolutely ridiculous

 

may 31 - june 1 : San Jose to visit my buddy Vose and help him get out of town as he makes his trek out to Boston to begin his surgery residency.

june 2-3-4 : Vegas for more of the 30th.

june 15-16-17 : Philly for a surprise 70th birthday party for Aunt Anna (Mucha side)

june 22-23-24 : Venice for a giant 90th birthday party for Grandpa Bennett (Brudevold side)

 

wowsa.

so i started back to track racing last tuesday night and went back for more punishment tonight. yikes - no leg speed at all. but, it's not like i've really trained any of that yet either - i'm taking a little bit of the hard way by putting in the road miles and then racing myself back in to shape at the same time - somewhat before doing any real structured interval training. the hardest part with that is struggling through the poor initial results before you can break through to real race fitness. i prolly won't be in real race shape until the middle of july, and that just feels *so* far away...

so i turned 30 a couple days ago. wow. i got some serious props from my p-mom, too. here's a link - not to the best props in the world - just a tribute.

james brown *is* the 8th wonder of the world.

 

 

so i was just in a really pissed off mood.  pretty annoying work day.  left late so i wasn't going to be able to get 3 hours in on the bike - only 2.  whatever.  anyway, start riding and i'm pretty much just stewing for a good half hour.  was listening to gnarls barkley and that ran out, so i decided to put on the jb.  jb starts playing, but it's not doing much.  please please please.  yeah, please don't.  it's a man's world.  yeah, and it sucks.

 

and then my teammate nick and his wife lisa drive right by me, hoot and holler that they're glad to see me on the bike and at that exact moment, get up - like a sex machine comes on and i've got to say, i totally got up.  followed immediately by i got you - i feel good.  and i felt good.  what can i say?  teammates and james brown - totally appointed.

 

 

i'm a sex machine...  hah!

just shaved my legs tonight for the first time in months.  that means i'm a bike racer again.

23 weeks until nationals on the track.  finished out the week with 105 miles on the bike.  that's a little less than what i was planning on, but that's cause the trip to dc just became a little more than i bargained for.  no worries, though - all is well.

 

trip to dc was to support a thursday brief on a project that i'm working on.  i wasn't giving the brief - just needed to be on hand to answer the hard questions if any were raised.  well, questions came fast and furious and the overall program manager just said "enough - we don't have time to talk about this right now - you need to come back and brief me separately."  unbelievable.  so i scheduled to brief the pm the next day - friday.  of course, the guy who was i was there to "support" was flying out on friday morning and wouldn't change his flight.  no problem - i just made up a new brief over night and gave it solo on friday.  it was scheduled to be a 20 minute q&a but turned into me standing up in front of a bloodthirsty room answering questions for an hour and 15 minutes.  that was awesome.  i came out ok though, and seemed to get all the major points across - managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as they say.  just kidding.

 

anyway, that was pretty much it.  hung out with the dc clan and flew back to sd early saturday morning.  just missed my big bro in the dallas airport by a couple hours.  i was flying dca-dfw-san.  jason was flying sat-dfw-fra.  oh well, next time.

so i'm enroute to DC for work.  GBS meeting on thursday out in reston, va.  it's always fairly annoying having to spend a day getting out there from the best coast and then a day getting back, all for a 20 minute briefing, but oh well.  no big deal - get to visit some of the phellas back east.

 

checked out san diego tuesday night track racing from the stands last night - i won't get around to racing until may - need to get some miles in my legs first.  anyway, some of the team was there and it was really great to see 'em.  we went out to eat burritos after the racing and talked about how the season was going so far, etc.  started talking racing tactics, training ideas, and all that nonsense.  man, it was great.  started getting super excited about *my* upcoming season and racing with the guys again.  good times...

fortune cookie of the day :

 

people find it difficult to resist your persuasive manner

so i'm counting down to track national championships in october - it's 24 weeks away - first week of october.  just got back on the bike this week and i'll close it out with 4.3 hours of training and 73 miles down.  next week should be around 140 miles - just need to ramp it all up somewhat slowly to avoid injury.  lookin good...

happy easter!

 

ok, that may be a couple days late, but that's right on schedule in my book...

 

anyway, wow.  i just finished up the snowboarding season this past friday with my slalom race at nationals.  the race didn't go super great, but it was still a good learning experience.  my first run down the course i was just slightly "over anxious" and i crsahed 3 - yes three - times.  that made for a pretty shoddy run 1, and i was pretty down in the dumps.  i just rode like a novice and didn't handle some of the turns very well at all.  anyway, run 2 comes up and i'm much more relaxed - i take the course just fine - no kind of record time, but a clean run and i beat the guy i'm racing next to.  you see, it was parallel slalom - 2 courses side by side (like just 10 - 15 feet side by side).  race the red course first, then switch to the blue course for the 2nd run - the competition that you're paired with does vice versa.  anyway, even though you're still ultimately racing against the clock, you also race against the person just to your side.  kind of like a rabbit to chase if they're leading, etc.  right, so i beat that guy on my 2nd run which was a really cool feeling - i don't think i've ever beaten anyone in slalom before...  of course my combined time of runs 1/2 still put me in last place due to all the crashing my first time around, but hey, no big deal - it was my first time at nationals (and doing the parallel format).  very cool.

 

45 days on the snow this season - went from absolutely zero to a fairly decent rider.  just bought my season pass for mammoth mountain next year - it'll be even better.  maybe i can finally become that boardercross star i've been dreaming of...

 

so snowboarding ended right with easter and in memory of the resurrection of Our Savior i've decided to resurrect my cycling career.  got back on the bike today for the first time in 8 weeks - wow.  and over the last 24 weeks - 6 months - i've only ridden about 686 miles.  yeah, 686 miles is what you should be riding over about 2 to 2 and a half weeks.  oops.  well, at least i'm well rested...  track nationals are in the beginning of october - 6 months away - plenty of time, right?  right...

ok, so a buddy of mine - let's just call him 'the dude' - sent me this email a couple days ago.  it pretty much sums up my entire situation, so i just had to republish it:

 

 

Subject: Something to Ponder

An interesting reflection: Slow Down Culture It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule. Globalize processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm, has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned companies. Volvo supplies the NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn't say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here
early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don't you think? Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe name Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and the "do it now!".

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

 

now, i can't say that i'm always at work early - no, i do drive fairly quickly to get there at the appointed time.  so i can't necessarily say that part 1 applies.

 

but the 'slow food' part?  man, i've been eating slow for years.  i remember sitting at goldie's bbq entertaining (or maybe mildly amusing?) the reids' with just rambling and rambling stories - just springboarding back and forth.  sitting in britain dining hall for hours on end with the phellas just layin down the food and discovering e time monikers.  hanging with my buddy jaan in france eating tiny octopusses in our dejeuner.  teaching the greeks a thing or two with my big bro.  warming up on a cold day in norway with all the brudevolls.

 

yeah, mealtime is really one of my all time favorites.  always has - always will.

 

and part 3?  the work schedule?  well, that was definitely a byproduct of my time in europe.  it's hard to even explain it sometimes.  once i got the ability to pull back on work a little bit, it made all the difference.  sometimes you just need to do less in order to do more.

so i'm just waiting for my flight to reno.

 

leave at 4:50 - get in to reno at 7:30 - stay at the sands casino for the night.

 

then it's a full week of snowboarding at northstar@tahoe.  that'll be just such a sweet way to finish off the season.  entry in nationals included a 6-day lift ticket, so of course i'll use that to the max and then some...  slalom race is on friday, apr 6.  totally appointed.

 

more to come.

so today was another brilliant day on the slopes.  i actually wasn't going to come up here this weekend, but my buddy jonathan's brother, scott snow, is racing the junior olympics up here in mammoth, so i had to come up and support the hardqoreness.  he's racing well, finishing in the 20's out of 90 or so competitors, and he's only 13 in the 13-14 division.  he'll win next year.

 

but scott's putting all that high school peer pressure on me - "what, you've never done a 360 off a jump before?  it's easy - if you can spin a 180 standing still then you can totally do a 360 off a jump."  "uhhhhh, you've got to be crazy, scott.  i'm not exactly the best jumper..."  "oh, you can do it."

 

so yeah, now i've got to get the courage up to do a 360.  i make a halfway effort and pull a 180, but just sit down right away.  "oh, that's cool, jeremy - nobody makes a 360 on their first try."  "..."

 

360's.  not sure i'll keep on trying those - maybe i will - but i really think i better learn how to ride goofy foot first, and that's just not easy at all.  anyway, yeah, whatever.  scott also got me to step up to the big jumps - the ones where you start to catch some serious big air.  and i've got to say - that is absolutely terrifying flying when you're getting big air.  it's just something you have to get used to, and it'll definitely help out the boardercross racing, but wow - pushing the limits for sure.

so i'm supposed to write about 6 weird things about myself, but no way - just too tired.  midnite jut followed by full day of boarding followed by hot tubbin and lasagna.  yeah, sleepy time so i can do it all over again tomorrow - sans the midnite jut.  word.

dude, i just made record time, as in land speed jutqoreness thereof, up to mammoth.  rolled out of SD at 00:39, got in to MM at 06:07.  394 miles in 5 1/2 hours with a stop halfway.  pretty good, considering 2/3 of the trip is not on the interstate.  that, and it sure is nice to get through LA at 2 in the morning...

 

so here's a great quote from the brief i gave yesterday - the one that held me up from leaving SD.  we're discussing risk levels and how we would rate the project that i'm managing.

 

CAPT Pope : so this is a pretty low risk project, right?

cap'n hq : well, yes, but i can't be entirely sure we'll get the desired results until we actually test the system over-the-air.

CAPT : but we've got the OEM designing the enhancement, so we shouldn't have the typical integration issues

cap'n : that's absolutely true - they know the system better than anyone else

CAPT : so everything should work then?

cap'n : Yep, everything should work perfectly fine - it's just the unknowns that always trip you up...

 

that was my Yogi Berra moment for the day.  Everyone just dropped their jaws and shook their heads.  It was awesome.

so it's midnite, and i'm about to hit the rode for mammoth.  was supposed to leave thursday around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and take 6.5 to 7.5 hours to get up there.  work said otherwise - i was giving a brief to our main boss man (CAPT Pope) from 2 yesterday, and that meeting ran over til after 4.  the meeting went really well, and everyone like my brief, but no point in even trying to fight traffic, so midnite jut here we come.  just got a good nap in, so i'm rared to take it jutqore to the promised land!

Day 2 of the CA State Games:

 

GS

 

Giant Slalom is supposed to be a more spread out - and therefore faster - course than Slalom.  Well, the course was definitely longer than the SL course, but it really didn't seem any faster.  Plus the surface was just so so icy.  I mean, I guess that's just how the alpine courses are - icy.  But wow, who really likes ice?  Anyway, time for the 1st run down the course.  I start out at what I think is a quick speed, and start bombing down the course.  I'm really trying to initiate the turns early so that I just barely come around the gates.  Anyway, I'm about 1/3 of the way down the course, making a turn, and then I realize that I'm heading straight at the gate - not in a tight arc around it.

 

Oh, no...

 

No time to change my angle and I just slam right through the gate (it's only a triangular flag, so there's no damage or anything).  I slide on my butt past 2 more gates until I can finally stop.  Now, if you miss a gate in SL or GS you get DQ'ed.  Usually the races are the combined times of 2 runs, but at the Cal Games it was the best time from the 2 runs that was your final score.  So, normally I would have had to have hiked back up and gone around the gates to keep from being DQ'ed, but since it was best of 2 I could simply miss the gates, go down the rest of the course, and have that score thrown out.  Of course, that meant that I had to nail the 2nd run correctly.  Yeah, no pressure there, especially after I crashed from being just a little aggressive.

 

2nd run, and I do what I think is a conservative run, but the entire time, I'm still skidding on the ice after every turn, and that's just so no good.  I still took some turns where I almost nailed the gate stake, but I made it down ok.  I ended up winning my age category, as I was the only competitor, but it was certainly no record time.  Mine was around 53 seconds - plenty of other people were around 50 seconds - and the guys tricked out in actual alpine race gear were around 42 seconds.  Yeah, lots to work on, to be sure.

day 1 of the CA state games :

 

SL and BX today.

 

rode around all morning, just doing jumps and some easy cruising.  it came time to do the SL, but nobody was at the course, so I took another run down the mountain.  get back to the SL course, and all of a sudden i'm late.  need to take my first run.  i take it really conservatively - not entirely on purpose - i simply had no idea what the course was.  anyway, that was slow, so i took the lift back up for my second run.  best time out of the 2 runs was the score, so i really needed to take it a bit quicker this time.  came out of the start - took the first turn - and i could tell this was going to be a good run.  took the 2nd turn - feeling fast.  3rd turn - just kill it.  4th turn - and i start skidding on the ice.  skidding so much that i had to sit down to avoid missing the gate.  nuts - there goes that time...  get back up and get back to speed.  finishout the run as fast as i can and that's that.  3rd place of 3 racers.

 

got over to the BX course as quick as i could and found out that i was too late to take a practice run on the course.  oh, wow.  my heat gets called - i'm feeling pretty no good - i mean - going down the course on its own at a fast speed without seeing it is hard enough.  but add in other guys that know the course?  forget it.  whatever.  heat comes up - 3 guys + me.  pull the start - i'm slowest out of the gate - i crash in the first turn. wow, need to work on riding those berms...  get back up and finish the course.  not too bad - time for the 2nd run.  so here we go - 2nd run.  i start slow again, and see the other 3 stacking up in the 1st turn.  they make it through, but 2 of the guys clash in turn 3 and one goes down.  perfect, i'm thinking - now i can cruise by.  but then he crawls up in the turn just as i'm coming by - oh, snap!  i'm able to go high in the turn and get by him just as he's getting up.  ok, now if i can just keep him at my back, then i'll finally actually beat someone at BX!  and then he passes me in the next turn.  huh.  finish out the course and that's that.  no injuries, so that's a success.

 

tomorrow is GS - that should be fun

So my team manager called me the other day:

 

general : hey, you're not quitting bike racing are you?

cap'n : naw, naw...  i'm not quitting - just taking some time off, i guess

general : is your knee still bothering you?

cap'n : oh, not as much anymore - it's still a little swollen, but i've got full mobility.  it's healing

general : been riding much?

cap'n : not a whole lot - been mostly snowboarding, actually

general : well, that's prolly good.  it's nice to have a change and just do something completely different now and then.

cap'n : yeah, it's really nice to just take a break.  i'll prolly start racing toward the end of april or the beginning of may.

general : that's cool.  so i'm out of town in colorado next week, but then i'll be back.  wanna go for a ride when i get back?

cap'n : sure, sounds good.

so i got an email yesterday from USASA - the USA Snowboarding Association - that's the organization I race under.  Apparently I qualified for Nationals in the SL event.  yeah, qualified 18th out of 20 spots for the 23-29 age group.  now there were only 32 people competing in that category nationwide, but it's still pretty ridiculous.  yeah, so nationals are at Northstar at Tahoe from April 1-6.  SL for my group is on the 6th...

 

http://usasa.org/action.lasso

 

so i guess i'm going to nationals.  i mean, was it ever really a question?

 

now if only I can somehow weasel a spot in to the GS and BX too...

(ranked 59th out of 92 in BX - only 25 qualifying spots, though)

(never done a GS before - but I'll try that out this weekend...)

hmmm, so with all that's gone on - where to start?

how about a quick overview, then I'll fill in the blanks later...

 

feb 1 - getting ready for my first SBX...

feb 2 - getting ready for my first SBX...

feb 3 - got blown away by my first SBX.

feb 4 - was supposed to bike race, but was pretty banged up from the SBX.

 

feb 10 - recovering...

feb 11 - recovering...

 

feb 18 - time to get back to snowboarding

feb 19 - time to celebrate the presidents - and snowboard

 

feb 23 - snow

feb 24 - snow

feb 25 - my very first Slalom (SL) race.  DFL..

 

mar 1 - flew out to DC to visit the JJJ... and snowboard

mar 2 - boarding in Snowshoe, West Virginia

mar 3 - my second SL race - a little bit better than the first

mar 4 - was supposed to be an SBX, but got cancelled.  :-(

 

mar 9 - snowboarding at Mammoth Mountain in central CA - pretty sweet

mar 10 - more boarding

mar 11 - second SBX race.  slightly better than the first - no injuries - but still crashed each time.

 

mar 16 - gonna be back at Mammoth again...

mar 17 - CA State Games (grass-roots pretend Olympic type thing) - SL and SBX

mar 18 - more CA Games - GS (Giant Slalom)

OK, so it's been a little bit, but you know what?  My computer broke about 2 weeks ago.  Just flat out broke.  Had to get a new one.  And so here we are.  Back to the Internet.  Hooray.

 

But the 2 weeks of non-blogging before that?  Well, that was just total business and laziness rolled into one.  I'll try to do better...

 

But not tonight - tonight I'm going to bed.

so i just threw a live rat in the dumpster.

 

yeah, i was sitting at home going through some email, and i hear my neighbor get home next door.  she opens the door and shrieks.  i open my door to see what's up, and she's just standing there on the verge of crying.  a rat had gotten into her apartment last night, and she had gotten rat traps (w/ PB for bait, of course), but the rat had eaten the PB and apparently was just waiting for her as she opened the door as she got home from work.  yeah, awesome.

 

so i asked her if there was anything i could do.  well, she said she had this problem (a rat) once before, and she got these super sticky rat traps - pretty much like fly paper, but for rats.  the hardest part - she said - was disposing of the rat/rat trap after the rat was actually caught, because - guess what - the rat is still alive.  picking up a rat trap with a squirming rat on it?  yeah, not as much fun.

 

so i was like - hey, i don't mind throwing the rat away for you.  her - really!?  noooo!!!  i'll pay you!  that would be the nicest thing!  me - nah, money?  maybe i'll pay you just to see this rat?  yeah, if you catch the rat tonight or tomorrow morning just knock on my door and i'll help you out - no worries.

 

...

 

only like 30-45 minutes later and there's a knock on my door.  truly record time rat catching, if i do say so myself.  so i got a small shovel, got a paper bag, and ventured in to dispose of the little guy.  turns out he wasn't so little - pretty big rat, actually - just squirming on the sticky stuff.  yuck.  dumped him in the bag and walked out as a champion.  and then i accidentally stepped on the 2nd sticky trap and dragged it along on my shoe.  yeah, that's how mucha rolls.  took the mucha trap off, and then walked across the street to throw a live rat in the dumpster.  and i've got to say, that's just weird.  i didn't want to directly kill the guy (by crushing him or anything like that) - that just seemed, well, wrong.  but i couldn't just let him go because - where would he go?  prolly back to my neighbor's apartment.  for a second, i considered getting in the car and driving a couple miles away and releasing him there - but nah...

 

so i just threw a live rat in the dumpster.

 

a live rat.  that can't move.  so he'll just eventually starve to death anyway.  an indirect death.  certainly no more humane than putting him out of his misery quickly.  but aside from that, there's this whole feeling of just throwing a living creature away.  wow.  i might as well have just thrown a kitten away.  or a puppy.  or a baby boy/girl.

 

i mean, a rat is a rodent, which means he's a pest, which means he should be exterminated, right?  i guess...

quik update :

 

boardercross.  i survived.

no major injuries - just a little bruising and swelling.  ouch.

 

more details to come tomorrow.

well, here it is.

 

2 months since I first put a board under my feet.  21 days on the snow.

 

And tomorrow's the big day.

 

plenty of injuries, but nothing so bad that it's kept me from keep on keeping on.  learned how to go down the hill pretty fast, mostly in control - just pretty much pushing the envelope on the edge of chaos really (TM Nico Demartini).  Learned how to jump and have progressed to medium sized jumps, usually making the landings in control.

 

And have had pretty much an awesome time the entire time.

 

Just sharpened the edges on my board, so we'll see if that takes me to the Promised Land tomorrow.  Bought a motocross jersey to finish out my racing kit - you'll love it - the company name is 'Xtreme Competition' - need I say more?

Passings on the Ski Lift

 

2 older skiers (both in their 60's) and me.  riding up the lift.  one pulls out cigarettes and lights up.  the other - 'man, i just want that smoke so bad...'  gives him a drag.  ' i bet he wants some too.'  me - 'no, i don't smoke - thanks.'  them - 'oh, that's good - never start.  i'm a master at quitting...  and starting...  and quitting...'  get to the top of the lift and the skiers take off.  i strap up and take off, do a little jump and then rip the rest of the way down the mountain as fast as i can right to the lift.  scan my pass and just then the 2 old skiers ski up to the lift.  'hey, how did a boarder beat us down?  we'll ride up again and see if he's having as much fun as we are...'  halfway up the lift and one of the old guys pulls out a hash pipe and just goes to town with his partner.  'you want some?'  'no, i really don't smoke.'  'oh, yeah...'  'but i'm kind of training for boardercross racing.  you want to race down the hill?'  'ehhhh, you're racing across the border?  against mexicans?  ah, hah, hah, hah!!!  sure...'  so we get of the lift, race down, i get there first.  they roll up and are like, 'wow, clearly you're not having as much fun as we are...'

 

2 dudes, a chick and me.  me - 'so how's your day going?'  everyone - 'oh, great.'  dude 1 - 'actually, i've kind of got a little numbness in my right foot.'  us - 'are your boots too tight?  your bindings too tight?'  dude 1 - no, i think it has something to do with sometimes when i land a jump and i land really hard and it feels like my bones kind of compress the nerves and maybe scratch them or something like that.  i get this numbness feeling sometimes.  one time i got it and the numbness didn't go away for like 6 months.'  us - jaws semi dropped - are you serious?  wow...  girl - 'yeah, a couple years ago i was just ripping down the mountain - just right over there - and i hit a patch of ice and the board came out from under me.  it was all over - when you crash at that speed on ice it's gonna be bad - i tore BOTH of my meniscusses (knees).  i sat there for about 10 minutes, and the ski patroller came by offering a ride, but i didn't want the bodybag, so i stood up, and fell down right away, but then got back up and made it down the hill.  i couldn't walk for 6 months.'

Day 1 of the Cycling Science (bike racing team) training camp.

 

Had an epiphany about 10 minutes into an hour 15 minute climb today.  This was my first big ride back on the bike after the achilles tendon injury, and I was just not so much super motivated.  in fact, i simply haven't had any desire whatsoever to ride the bike lately.  would really rather just think about boarding.  thought about hanging the bikes up for good.

 

Started this climb and it was just suck city.  go at my own pace - just so out of shape - go slow - meet the rest of the team at the top.  so it was sucking, but about 10 minutes into the climb a single thought popped into my mind, and it was 'go the distance'.  cue orchestra swell.  yes, i started having visions of Rocky running through Pilly, getting more and more fit.  first he would end at the art museum with his hands on his knees, but then we would eventually get there and raise his hands in victory.  i had to go through the same process.  cheesy?  yeah, maybe, but it was pretty powerful.

 

and i rediscovered what it is that makes me tick.  you know, i really like a good challenge.  i crave the struggle.  if something comes too easy, then i'm not really all that interested.  i need the challenge.  i need to go the distance.  and cycling provides that for sure.  today, for me, just getting up the hill was a struggle.  but as i get more fit the struggle doesn't really end, you just go up the hill a little faster.  and then a little faster still.  and...

 

it was just a really beautiful moment.  one i'll remember for a long time.

OK, so over New Year's I accomplished part 1 (of 3) of my Snowboarding master plan.

Part 1 - During December, I learned how to snowboard well enough to (mostly) keep up with my buddies over the big New Year's trip to ID. I went down all the runs - blue, blacks, double blacks - and only occasionally whined and didn't cause any major bodily injuries to myself (or others).

But what are the other parts?

Well, I just bought a piece of equipment for Part 3 today. Part 3 is racing BoarderCross (SBX). Behold, full downhill body armor...



Yeah, there's a spine protector and everything. Wow.

And of course I had to get a full face helmet to go along with it as well...



So Part 2 is to keep on riding the board and getting better at jumps, etc in order to do well (or hopefully at least not horrible) in my first SBX race on Feb 3. I figure I've got about 8 more days on the snow before that date. Heh, heh, heh...

More snowboarding videos...

Mucha takes his first jump :



Followed by Daniel Shinn, but apparently Shinn would rather go bowling instead :



And it wouldn't be right if there wasn't yet another video of Mucha being a goof :

Buddy attempts to get a comp lift ticket...



Undaunted, Buddy warms up on the board...



Fueled by maple syrup, Buddy attacks the powder!