gwadzilla

Rants on Cycling and on Life

1.12.2006



ah...
the internet
the blog
the eWorld

a great discussion on DRINK THE KOOL AID
has me chasing down the Marzocchi Girls
found them at PEBIKING
not sure what they are selling
but I am buying

chased this conversation from CYCLEICIOUS
to DRINK THE KOOL AID
then to the sites with the women

all this while trying to find some FOLKLORE truth about the Ian Svenonious
ened up finding this NPR story about DISCHORD instead
one more look to for the story about Mr. Sassy.... the
sassiest man in america
here is something on Marketplace

journalist david rosenbaum killed in robbery
a sad story
knowing that they have a suspect in custody does not give me closure

hard to believe that something like this can happen
these are brutual times
or perhaps
the world population has grow and there are the same percentage of brutal crimes to the world population times past
in addition to the increased world population
the world communication has taken small town tradgedy to world news level
as in the case of the death to the coal miners

wonder if there is any truth to this theory on the death of rosenbaum
also heard that there was some slow diagnosis of the injury
no notice to the head trama

sad no matter what the truth is
crimes like this should not happen
not in the hood
not in the more affluent areas of this country

a mouse in my house
there is a mouse in my house
there may be many mice in my house
but that does not rhythm, so I say house rather than hice
and mouse rather than mice

how do I rid my house of this mouse?

with children and dogs I had to think what I could do?
snap traps, live traps, poison, or repellant
pet snake or pet owl as the dogs are clearly useless on this one
oddly I opted for poison rather than traps
banning children and dogs from the basement
the boys are quite clear that there is poison in the basement
even if it is hidden and tucked in little holes
the boys are banned from the basement

the mouse activity had decreased
several oif the mice are now deceased
found one dead... tossed it in the trash
seems like I can smell one dead... can not locate it as of yet
and
last night I managed to catch a little mouse with a dust pan and a broom
as I moved out the back door to the alley I weighed what to do
lisa and the mouse squeeked in harmony
the boys chimmed in with interest and delight
I ran up the dark wet stairs on the back deck
with the dust pan in one hand
a small hand broom in the other... pinning the little mouse to the pan
in an effort not to crush the little mouse as I aimed to let it be a mouse relocation plan to my trash can
I dropped the little guy in the back yard headed to the alley
hope he does not find his way back into my house

that said....
what is the ethic?
no matter how it is done
I want that mouse out of my house
not that I want the mouse dead
but
I do not want the mouse in my house
if the mouse were to be killed, I would want no blood on my hands
I did not want to crush it with my bare hands or the even the broom
but
had a toilet been closer I would have flushed it
for some reason the swirling water seems like a painless way for them to go
less audible squealing I guess

well...
now it is time to clean the basement and patch the mouse holes
hopefully I have cleared my house of the mouse problem
at least for this winter

1.11.2006

seems to me that those "kids" were not "helping Barry with his groceries"
those "kids" were delivering the "groceries"
and well
the dispute seems to be about incorrect change
perhaps he has a receipt
post article on barry

this is all very interesting
james fry is on larry king live
memoir... that sounded like a good enough answer to me
let him get dramatic in his telling of his story
people would not have enjoyed it as much if such liberties had not been taken
now if he had written a historical piece or a news story
then I would be more critical

as in the case of this Washington Post journalist that got the nation's attention in 1980
her piece "jimmy's story" was read to us each day in grade school
(jimmy turned out to be a ficticious 8 year old junkie)

here is what Wikipedia said...

Janet Cooke was a reporter for the Washington Post during the early 1980s. In 1980 her story, "Jimmy's World", about an 8 year old heroin addict, sparked a frenzied 17-day scouring of Washington, D.C. at the behest of then-Mayor Marion Barry, in search of child addicts: none was found. Nevertheless, the article won a 1981 Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Shortly afterward, Cooke confessed that "Jimmy" was a fabrication, claiming that he was a composite of several child addicts, and returned the prize. She also admitted to having padded her resume and resigned from the Post.

this all comes back to that amazing story of Rosie Ruiz

back to James Frey
this guy is in the hot seat...
handling himself without the tears that kept Rosie Ruiz from answering the questions
yet somehow I question...
Why was our president not put under the same harsh scrutiny about his embellishment?

a clean and sober friend of mine shared this article from EXILE
I would think that recovering addicts would support the book
as it is more the message than the measure of the truth
guess that some are jealous that they did not tell their tale on the New York Times best seller's list



million dollar blogger
well.... million dollar idea
bbc
ebay
milliondollarhomepage.com seems to be down

punk folklore: FEAR on Saturday Night Live
growing up the message traveled by word of mouth
people told jokes
people spread myth
people spread rumor
this was a time when people took the time to etch their smutty little poem on a public library bathroom stall wall

people told stories
people listened to stories
and
people told the same stories again and again

a story I had heard and always wanted some validation of is the performance of FEAR on the Saturday Night Live show

this clip must be an amazing piece
to have an amazing band at an amazing time in music history perform not one, not two, but four amazing songs
on top of that...
to have john belushi in the mosh pit of so many who would be come the "whose who" if the dc punk scene

now in the time of the internet the truth can be told
this is what my laptop truth box told me...

Fear 1981– John Belushi was a huge punk-rock fan and his favorite bands were the Dead Boys and Fear. Fear, Hollywood’s most notorious punk band in the early ‘80s, was lead by charismatic soon-to-be actor Lee Ving, who often taunted his audience with homophobic and racist taunts (all in "good fun," ya understand). Fear came on and did two things that made their seldom rerun performance defy all SNL logic: 1. After performing “I Don’t Care About You,” for their first song, they returned with an unheard-of-for-a-punk-band medley of their hits, the unholy trilogy of terror that is “Beef Bologna/New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones/Let's Have A War.” 2. They invited the punker-heavy crowd onstage to mosh… and they did. Lead by Belushi himself, the crowd stormed the stage with such ferocity they immediately trampled the band’s gear and unplugged several instruments. Within seconds, it was chaos… pure, unplanned, history-making chaos. Punk went public that day.


this found here.

still have never seen the clip
never heard it talked about
loved the Elvis Costello clip... it gets it play
heck
the beastie boys covered that move

so why is this wonderful clip stuck in a vault
perhaps a deeper search will find that episode of SNL in 1981
is there a sketch where Andy Warhol plays himself?

perhaps a time when SNL was just Saturday Night Live
and there was no such thing as Sunny D... Tang yes?
sunny d no

sly with ala carte express.... breaking oddly at lunch time
within the subculture of bicycle delivery people
there are messengers/couriers and there are food delivery services
and there are inhouse deliveries as well
heck!
in the Pentagon the people who manage the phones travel by tricycle
within the halls of the Pentagon itself
true story!

some photos taken on the move
no time to make mention of the blog
just a shared hello and the snap of the shutter



Lola kills time between runs for Messenger Express by working on her "track skills"

it is happening again...
my electric tooth brush is starting to wain
that electric spin has me working things by hand
no longer do I get that post dental cleaning sensation

along with my toothbrush there are varioous other battery operated devices suffering a similar fate
Dean's pirate ship's once with sharp and crisp sounds of sword fights are now muffled with a dull droan
while Grant's firetruck still has lights... its sirens are nothing more than a moan
then there are the toys that are dormant, dead batteries leaving them without a tone
my box of batteries to be recycled is really starting to grow
rather than purchasing another million batteries from Costco perhaps I need to seek out a solid battery charger with rechargeable batteries
this is a concept that I approached a decade ago
but walked away from with frustration as the battery life was too short for playful pleasure
I am certain technology has increased
as far as the toothbrush goes... there are rechargeable mechanisms that is the way for me to go
my wife has one already
after I buzz through my final brushes on this toothbrush rather than more batteries it will be a rechargeable toothbrush that I will buy

sorry if my "on again off again" rhyme scheme sounded like Andre the Giant in The Princess Bride

1.10.2006


reality tv
it is nothing new
we all love the soap opera of reality
documentary and documentary film can be a real life soap opera
fact again being stranger than fiction
watching some random GSN network thing
there is this documentary/magazine story on a female marathoner, Rosie Ruiz
me watching tv is not the thing that is so strange
it is what motivates people to do what they do that is strange

here is how Wikpedia tells the Rosie Ruiz story
Anything to Win on GSN

an amazing story
a story that makes me think about a conversation I had with a friend of mine who is a fast roadie type, Wonderbread
he had called
we started chatting
somehow doping came up
neither of us get it
this Rosie Ruiz reminds me of that conversation
surprised I had never heard of Rosie Ruiz
had heard ot such a concept
but did not realize such a thing had actually happened

last week I saw something on the History Channel on Evel Knievel
Now, Evel Knievel was the real deal



went to baltimore with the boys the other day
we made a day of it
went to visit my buddy rob and his new wife lori
they have a little dog boutique in federal hill
we had lunch
the boys got to make some buscuits for the dogs

from there we went to the aquarium
while walking from the car we came across this "session" of bmxers
they were packing it up
so, I did not get the shot
got one shot...
then they were on their way
guess their exhibition was not for my eyes

love
love them while they are here
be that your brother, your hermit crab, your mother, or your dog
love them for their good
forgive them for their bad
make amends as it is too late after they are dead

don't be afraid to give too much love
love is a resource unlike any other
rather than depleting
love builds upon itself
the more love you give
the more love you have to give

so give love freely


1.09.2006


a few blog resources for the bicycling blogger bikecentric (a bicycle blogging coop that I am a part of)
bike blogs (a vast resource for the bicycle blogger, always growing)
bicycle blogs (a great collection of links)


jill of UP IN ALASKA
she is riding/training/preparing for the Susitna100
just reading about it makes me cold
check out her log, her blog, and her progress
life seems very different in her corner of the world
then again, I am sure that her life is different than many of those that live around the corner from her

bike and snow are not often used in the same sentence

mean while in another corner of the world MAGS trains for the Olympics
here Mags tells us to Listen to Our Bodies




farragut square: just one of the many dc parks with a statue that people seldomly notice

1.08.2006


Cesar Millan
on National Geographic Channel as
The Dog Whisperer
his own
Dog Psychology Center

as a father and as a dog owner I highly recommend it

then again I am a big fan of The Andy Griffith Show

erasing superstition
it is hard to think of someone who is not superstitious
just that some people are less superstitious than others
religion has its practices that fall into areas that I would call superstitious
think of your everyday life and you may find that you too have some mild superstitious behaviors

this fall I purchased a new specialized cross bike
ordered it as soon as it was made available to me
anticipation was grand
cross is not my thing, yet I do have a love for getting my ass handed to me at the local cross races
well.... after much anticipation my bike came
it was everything I thought it would be

on my first off road ride
perhaps more of a mountain trail than cyclocross terrain I went over the handlebars
my excitement got the best of me
went over the handlebars and dislocated my shoulder
nasty
nasty and painful
a moment I hate to relive in my mind
a moment I fear reliving in my future as a cyclist

with my shoulder dislocated I was "off the bike" for a few months
my cross bike collected dust along side several other bikes as I lived bikeless and mended on the sidelines
there was this beautiful new bike collecting dust
a new bike without a ding or a scratch
a bike no worse from a crash that send me to the ER

there were many moments where I stared at the bike wondering if this bike had been stigmatized
thoughts went through my head if I would be able to ride this bike
worse yet
there were thoughts in my head where I questioned whether or not I would ever be able to "love this bike"

a few weeks ago I resumed my daily rides
small rides around town
most rides to work
then a little longer ride after work
the return to the bike had me straddling my Surly Karate Monkey rigid Single Speed
solid and slow.... just like me
after a few weeks on the Surly I started to feel this yearning for a little more resistence
there was the Specialized just begging to be ridden

late last week I took out the Specialized Tri-Cross
no superstitions
just a great bike that is a great ride

the crash was all on me
no blame on the bike

glad to be back on the bike
glad to be on any and all bikes

.

Green Roof/Green Roofing
an interesting topic that I have been meaning to blog about

the rubik's cube: where did they all go?
anyone a few years older or a few years younger than me most definitely can recall the
Rubik's Cube
the
rubik's cube was a pop sensation not unlike the hool-a-hoop or yo-yo craze of a time before my time
the rubik's cube was a little more fun than the pet rock
but not really all that much fun
yet as addictive as Tetris
as it was not logic that solved the cube
it was the knowledge of a blind pattern
a pattern I never learned
as I either removed the stickers and replaced them
or
broke the cube apart and re-assembled it into the matching squares


my point is not a bitter rant of my inability to solve the cube

no, I am not even concerned with the fact that I never owned a "proper" Rubik's cube but always had some sort of off brand rip off that had a slightly different set of colors and moved on a less fluid axis

no... those ideas have nothing to do with my point
my question is....

"where did all the Rubik's Cubes go?"

in the early 1980's certainly most every house in the United States had at least one Rubik's cube or a cheap Taiwanese rip off or a semi-functioning mini-cube on a key chain
but... where did they all go?

that is a lot of Rubik's Cubes?

this to me is not so much a concern for the suspicious disappearance of millions of Rubik's Cubes and other Rubik-like products

but more a matter of the production of things for entertainment
and their place in the world after they are thrown aside
if it is not the Rubik's Cube, it is bicycle, a big wheel, and then a computer
we have all owned different levels of each
upgraded and then discarded the older less desirable model

gotta roll....
more on this idea later
trying to bring this around to eWaste