Been a while

So I recently had a comment on a very old post which showed up in my e-mail to remind me that I still have a blog lurking around the interwebs. I see it's been just about a year since the last time I posted anything. Quite the year it's been. I used to write about politics because I hated bush and the neocons, then I was filled with hope of restoring dignity to our country with the election of Obama. And now we are nearing another election which has sucked that hope right out of me. I'll admit that politics has gotten entertaining and if we were all just sitting around laughing at the fringe candidates and their sheer insanity then it would be a good time. The problem is people are voting for the crazies. We have a nut case with a legit shot at becoming governor of my state. Official e-mails would probably get more interesting...
I'm ok with politicians who are a little less polished, a bit more raw, but beastiality? seriously? If he was caught with it on his computer I'd be a little concerned, but when he finds that acceptable enough that he e-mails it to people then something is seriously wrong. If he was a boyscout leader I'd be concerned for those children, when he's running for governor it's a little bigger concern. The scariest part of all is that people are voting for him...

Memories

Warning. It's late I can't sleep and I'm not doing much editing for spelling, content, factual errors or reasoning. Enjoy!

A friend got me thinking about memories. I thought of how it's usually imposible to know, what is really a memory and what is just remembering the story. It's part of the computer code, it saves the data but just like how text takes less space than video. Anyway she talked about specific things, like colors, stand out for her. My memory is pretty vague. I just remember some basic rough draft type info and a feeling, maybe an image or two. It's the feelings though that really stand out. Feelings, they're so primal and simple. I can't always tell you why I like something, wine and movies come to mind. I can't always explain why one stupid comedy is hillarious and another is just stupid. But there is a difference. My dad has a great method for judging a live singing of the star spangled banner. Side note for all the shit I give our country for not living up to our own ideals I must say we have a pretty bad ass national anthem, done right it's impressive. You can tell a good rendition of it because the hair on your arms and neck stand up. Which is my fathers test. Feelings, they're strange things, sometimes they're a real pain in the ass. But sometimes they're great. Didn't mean to sound emo there, most of my life is reasonably happy, some things are great. And because as I already said most of my memories are just vague images attached to feelings it's really easy to sort the ones to keep, the good days, from the less important ones, the bad days. Then again that means I could have a pretty terrible life and barely even know it. Nah my life doesn't seem terrible, Oh no! Trapped in my own pointless lodgic.

I was about to say that I lost track of the point of this a while ago, but I'm not sure this post ever really had a point. I think I'm just confused as to why I'm not asleep.

Well thank you to the person who made me think about the past. You know who you are.

And thank you to ABC for being mostly awesome.
Or was it amazing?

Life

So I've got a new job. Just part time at the bike shop. I like it. It's nice going to work and actually having work to do. Plus I get a discount on bike stuff.

The complicated situation I talked about before has changed, we got in a huge fight over the douche bag, then we were cool again for a little bit. Then she said we couldn't talk for a while. Her life was getting too complicated and stressful. So she wanted to kick both of us out of her life, at least for a while. I thought that was pretty fucked up, yet understandable. Part of me just wanted to show up on her doorstep, if she really wanted to say goodbye I felt like I at least deserved a goodbye in person, not a text. But I said fuck that, if I mean so little to her that she can just be done with me like that then fine it is better to just walk away. So then after a week she started talking to me again. Apparently she saw this blog and said I should update it because my feelings have probably changed. It's true they have. Even within a couple days of writing that things had changed. I really care about her a lot and thats all i know with any certainty. I hope we can stay friends, it's nice to have friends with differing views.

It's complicated

Ok I haven't posted anything in a long time. Sorry bout that. I'm now unemployed so I don't spend hours staring at a computer screen. That probably sounds kinda backwards but I had a really boring job. Plus last time I wrote something from my phone in never posted which sucks cause i put some effort into it. I'm so far behind with what's going on in the world I can't really say much as far as that goes.

On the other hand part of why I'm so detached from the world is because I've been spending a lot of time with a beautiful woman. She's fun, she's crazy, a really great person. So of course it can't be quite that simple. Ok she's a mom but that's not the issue. The real hold up is she is very religious. We met about a year ago at school. I'd been checking out the selection in the room and there isn't much other than ones I later described to a friend as, "really cute little girls."
"little girls?" she says.
"yeah, so you see the problem."
Then just as the class is supposed to begin in walks this gorgeous tall thin redhead. My curiousity was piqued. A few weeks later were get put into a group to make up a little psych study, no big deal stupid little classroom project. But most of my group was fucking idiots. I basically had the project done as I read what we had to do. So I'm fighting with the stupid and gorgeous is making it he'll. It was weird because the others seemed genuinely stupid, she just confused me. The ideas that this person I've never spoken to before is just fucking with me to get me riled up didn't occure to me but that is in fact exactly what was going on. You can see why I like her so much.

We got to be pretty good friends but she made it very clear from the start that there was no possibility of it going beyond friendship because I wasn't a Christian. We still had fun, a lot of flirty and even quite dirty conversations but all just joking around, well mostly joking. Then she started dating this douche canoe. She said he was great but everything she told me just threw up one giant red flag after another that he was going to use her. I told her this repeatedly, but to no avail. Then we fooled around a bit one night and she decided she couldn't have a long distance relationship with the douche and be flirtatious friends with me. Unfortunatle for both of us she dropped me instead of him. We didn't talk for many months. Eventually she realized that he was just using her and dumped his ass. Then oh a month or so ago she starts talking to me again.

I stuff my foot far enough into my mouth that I'm licking the back of my knee, then she pisses me off. Somehow that brought us even closer together. So my feelings waiver as to if i could date her, could it possibly work? We continue to spend a lot of time together and have just become closer and closer. I don't think she is quite ready to date an atheist, but I know the wall has been severely damaged. It's a weird spot. We both really like each other and care about one another. Were comfortable and honest which is huge to me. But the fact that we have such opposite world views is clearly a problem. I did go to church with her last weekend. That should tell you how much I like her considering I have the big scarlet "A" on this website and this post will be posted on planet atheism. Oh but it should be noted that I'm not the kind of asshole who's going to pretend to convert just to get with a girl. But I will sit through some crap I don't like to get this girl. Even without dating she makes me a better person, Ive hardly drank at all since we started hanging out. I'm not sure what's going to happen but I really like her and she likes me too. Oh and I've even met her family at her sons birthday party, her mom apparently really liked me and said that if I was a christian I'd be a keeper. We know each others flaws, and we accept them so maybe there is more than just friendship in our future.

Start Happy

I've got some ranting to do so before I get there I want to start with something cool. So here's a link to a living bridge.

Beyond that I'm closing one chapter in my life and hopefully starting a new one. This week is my last with the non-profit I've been working for these last 4+ years. It's been a great place to work but as anyone who knows me is well aware it was always a dead end job and I should have left about 3 years ago. So thats the chapter thats closing.
The new one (hopefully) is that I'll be going back to school full time at Elmira College. I say hopefully because I'm actually still in the process of applying, the transcripts should be in by now or very soon and so I'm hoping to hear if I'm in by the end of this week. Luckily the school starts a little later than most so I've still got a couple weeks.

So thats my news, I'll also warn that I'm going to have much less time to waste online so expect my posts to get even less frequent, although I can now blog from my phone so maybe I'll keep it up to date.

Seneca Falls by The Distillers

I should play this for my former, and possibly future, history teacher. I can't say the lyrics entirely make sense but at least they are trying. Also one of few female singers in a punk band I like, of course she doesn't have a very feminine voice.

Founding Fathers

If there's an afterlife, and I really really don't think there is, then the founding fathers would be haunting the shit out of some motherfuckers. Thomas Jefferson was given an rough draft of the Constitution, he immediately criticized the lack of a Bill of Rights and then listed some important ones such as freedom of religion, speech and the press. Those probably sound familiar, wanna know another one? He wanted to make sure the Government could not create a standing army. Think how that would change this country....

Oh and James Madison wanted to make a set of laws limiting luxury and conspicuous consumption. Again think how that would change this country. Protection of property had already come to be an major part of our idea of freedom at this point so it probably wouldn't have tried to prevent individuals from owning large amounts of land or large companies (although what constituted a large company at that time was a very very different thing) but would have prevented unnecessary luxury in keeping with the way americans lived simply during the revolution in order to free themselves of the binds of europe. I'm not opposed to international trade, but I'm hugely in favor of living more simply.

Taxpayer Status

This is an interesting case, the issue of the actual case is fairly humdrum, a muslim charter school funded with taxpayer is in violation of the establishment clause. The interesting part is the fact that it's usually not possible to sue the government for spending your money in an unconstitutional manner. There is a loophole allowing lawsuits for violations of the establishment clause but only if the money was directly allocated by the Legislative branch. So if the president or you governor spend your money illegally there isn't shit you can do about it. That seems reasonable.... or not. I'm assuming that the theory is that if these lawsuits were permitted then people would be suing every time their money was spent on something they didn't like. I can just picture the teabaggers trying to sue of their money being used to save lives. So I'm kinda torn on this, I think it's terrible that an individual is barred from suing the government for breaking the highest law in our land. Thats fucked. But I can understand how big of a pain in the ass that would be. Then again if the government didn't break the law their would be no lawsuits. If they do break the law they need to be held accountable and thats the point of the judiciary branch, ya know the whole checks and balances thing. But the judiciary can't just strike down an illegal law, someone must bring the case, if were aren't allowed to start the case then how can the judiciary do their job? I guess I'm not as torn about this as I thought I was.

And the fact that the loophole only applies to the legislative branch and not the executive seems particularly odd to me. Why should the executive branch get a free pass to spend my money illegally? The article sites the Hein case where the Freedom from Religion Foundation sued the white house over things related to the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, but seeing as the White House spent it's own General Funds (which are still our dollars) and wasn't appropriated by Congress the FFRF couldn't sue. WTF? How does that make sense in any way? Grrr... That seems like the most egregious violation of the Establishment Clause which they didn't claim was legal, the simply said there is nothing you can do about it. Fuck that shit.

Illegal is illegal, no one is above the law. At least thats the theory...

the British Chiropractic Association

If you happen to have read the last post you'll see that if you're going to make scientific claims you need to be able to back them up. You need evidence that supports your views or else someone is going to come along and tell you that you're wrong. If or when that happens you start by checking if they are correct in their assertion, if they are you can change your hypothesis or throw it away. So what do you do if that hypothesis is that Chiropractic methods work and you've just had your ass handed to you by someone who simply pointed out that none of your claims are backed by evidence? Well if you happen to be the British Chiropractic Association, and I hope you're not, then you sue the shit out of that person for pointing it out!

This is a horrible precedence if it stands. It's ok to promote unproven medicine, but if you point out that said medicine is unproven and possibly dangerous you can be sued for libel. Holy fuck batman, glad I'm not living in England.

Aww... we weren't swimming apes

Ok theres a fringe hypothesis that at some point in our evolution one of our ancestors spent a bit of time in the water. It's known as the Aquatic Ape Theory or ATT for short, but in keeping with scientific norms it should be called a hypothesis and not a theory as it is far from an established theory. I know very little about serious biology but I know more than most people, which isn't saying much at all, hell I'm not even sure if "most" know that evolution is real. Anyway I heard about this theory, er hypothesis, at some point and found it interesting. It seemed to explain a few odd things, such as why aren't we covered in hair like other primates? From the view of a layman it seemed possible and interesting. But it appears that from the view of someone who knows something about biology it's not a very convincing argument at all. This is how and why science works, anyone is welcome to come up with a hypothesis, and anyone is welcome to try to prove it wrong. Contrary to what the haters think taking down an established theory is what makes the greats the greats. You've heard of people like Einstein and Newton right? It's important to note that Einstein was not a famous scientist who proved Newton wrong, he became a famous scientist BECAUSE he proved Newton wrong. When he proved Newton wrong the second time he was famous.

Anyway the point is that if you are going to venture into science then you'd better have skin thick enough to stand some criticism because it's going to happen, thats how science works, its why science works. I bring this up once again because if I get to it this will be an important part of the next post.

"Alternative Medicine" vs Science/Reality

This isn't exactly breaking news as the report came out several weeks ago, not to mention the fact that the study only confirmed what should be obvious. Alternative, Holistic, Unconventional, Complimentary, Unorthodox, or whatever else you want to call it, Medicine does not work. Shocking right?
"But come on man they've been using this for thousands of years, western medicine doesn't know everything."
And what was the life expectancy for those thousands of years, and what is it since western medicine has taken over? I know it sounds like crazy talk but sometimes it's a good idea to see if things actually work, a great case for that would be medicine right? Maybe apply the scientific method and, oh lets really get crazy, test that shit? So the government spent a decade and a few billion to see if maybe there was something to all this mumbo jumbo. The only one they found to work was Ginger helps prevent nausea associated with chemo.

Here's a short little article on the matter and I think this sums up the biggest problem with "alternatives."

Any treatment that has proven to provide reliable benefit, is automatically added to the canon of ‘western’ medicine. Therefore the only treatments left available for ‘alternative’ to claim, are those that are unproven, or worse, treatments known to be actively harmful.

I could have quoted that entire article, seriously read it. To me this whole thing is just another part of our societies problem with science. Our society thinks that faith is a good thing, our politicians are forced to pander to the masses and say, "Yes, I think that things are true despite a complete lack of evidence" and the crowds cheer. Why is faith a good thing? I just don't get it. I much prefer knowledge to faith but for some reason I'm in the minority on that one. So how do we know something as opposed to just thinking something? You test it, you try to prove your own guess wrong, if you can't (and it's an idea that can be proved wrong) then it's probably right. Makes sense right? Hey that fucking science! And its the reason we Know some shit, we don't know everything and no scientist would claim we do, if we did they'd be out of a job. To tie this back in with the original part, the government is also looking into some even kookier ideas like distance healing, spiritual energies and prayer. Not that I put much value on case studies but here's someone who decided to use prayer to cure their child of Juvenile Diabetes. God came through and she is doing much better, doctors are now prescribing two teaspoons on god for all sorts of illnesses... oh wait that isn't what happened? The child died a slow and agonizing death because the parents refused to give her a shot of insulin? Hmm... well at least they'll have some time to think about their choice while they sit in jail for Second Degree Reckless Homicide.

So yeah western medicine has its problems, for one it's not available to everyone, it's regulatory agencies are too deep in the pockets of big pharma, Doctors are too overworked to spend enough time with their patients, and with the incredible amounts of money being made it's no surprise that there are some shady dealings and outright corruption. I think this is another reason why people are nervous about trusting the guy with the PHD who has $200,000 worth of college loans he needs you to help him pay back. So they go to the nature loving hippie who only smells a little and is in touch with your individual life energies and wants to simple help refocus your chakras. Of course it should be noted that the bullshit sales of alternative meds is a 34 Billion dollar industry, with no proof at all that any of it works.

Obama Birth Certificate

Seriously folks? There are still people talking about this? He has shown his birth certificate and two birth announcements from local papers, what more can you ask for? Seriously if you asked any American to prove they were born here what more could they have as proof, hospital bills? They're just sippin the Haterade and can't stand that some of his shit is working, like the Cash for Clunkers program.

50 miles!

Woohoo! My first fifty mile ride! Ok well actually it was like 23 miles to watkins, that part was awesome as it's almost all downhill. Then I got some grub at the Italian festival which I didn't even realize was going on. The way back was a whole lot slower but otherwise fine. It was a great day for sure.


I couldn't help but think of vonegut at this point, "if this isn't nice then I don't know what is."

Beer Summit

Ok so Obama has asked the cop and the professor over for a beer. He wants to deal with this but not make too big a deal out of it either, diffuse the situation and shit.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32210408/ns/politics-white_house/

(this is my first attempt bloggin from my phone and I'm not sure how to make links pretty, hopefully they don't try to make me learn HTML at this point)

But I have one major major concern here. The cop asked for blue moon, a tasty brew, the harvard bloke wants red stripe, horray beer! And the leader of the free world is going to sip on bud light.... BUD FUCKING LIGHT!! Seriously? Ok I'm sure it's a calculated move like everything he does, he probably had advisors telling him what would be the exact right beer so as not to look pretentious, it had to be an American beer obviously. He probably just said what's the best selling beer in the country and figured that would be a good pick to look like an average Joe, but as I've said many times you're the fucking president you are by deffinition the elite, pretty much as high up there as you can get without Simon clapping for you, you don't need to pretend to be average Joe. Yeah it worked for the last guy but it's probably best not to look at him for ideas on how to be prez. He should have had an Arrogant Bastard Ale then wrote a note to the company saying, I am worthy.

Oh and yeah he should have had an American beer, I almost forgot bud isn't American anymore, I think some Belgian company makes that swill now. I realize he can't show up with ahold bottle of Sam Adams utopia and not catch shit, although a regular Sam would be a good choice. Then again maybe he just doesn't like beer so he got water instead, or bud light which is close enough.

As for the meeting itself, meh. It makes sense, just try to get that little mess behind us so he can get back to letting the repubs and bitch ass dems fuck up any chance for useful change in health care.

I want the dems to grow a pair, they got a real mandate during the election but still all they can
talk about is bipartisan bullshit, personally I think it's so they can keep blaming the rebups, and that's the issue they are still in the mindset of avoiding blame for fuck ups instead of wanting credit for a job well done. They need to stand up and say ok here is our plan, yall on the othe side of the isle are welcome to join us working out the details but if you don't like the basic plan that's fine, whine and bitch but stay outta the way. Yeah go cry to ORielly and his little impersonator (not Colbert, the other one the shitty one) about how making sure everyone can see a doctor is evil socialism. Instead they just water shit down until the repubs are sorta ok with it, and the "blue dogs" who are actually the bigger problem here. Where's the other side in this debate? All I hear is how it's socialist, where are the rest of the comentators screaming cause it's not social enough? I want single payer national healthcare! Fuck the insurance companies, they've fucked us long enough.


UPDATE: lots of people have rambled bullshit about this, the only reason I did is because I don't care for Bud Light and i think his choice was a political move, i just think it's sad that politics have gotten to the point where the President can't even drink a beer without thinking about how it will look to the people. Of course there is the chance that he just likes Bud Light, my dad does, it's not terrible beer its just dull beer.

"How is American beer like sex in a canoe?"
"It's Fucking close to water!"
- Andrew, someone I knew when I flew. He was a character...

Plz don't steal mah phone

this could suck....

Stickers

I'm not sure why but I want to slap stickers on my bike, the single speed not the TCR. Environmental stickers seem appropriate, but then again I also like being confrontational about my world view so there are some others I like too. But there's also the issue that it's a bike so there's not a ton of room. I could probably fit a full size bumper sticker on the downtube but anywhere else would need to be smaller.

In no particular order here's a few I like.
Two Hands
Fascism

Oh good site here.... and they're bike sized
Welfare vs Military
TV Transmitters
Meat

And a Pin,
Programing?

Are Helmets Useful?

It's come up a few times and from what I can tell the basic answer is, meh. Even wikipedia's entry seems pretty ambivalent about their use. There are a few problems. It's almost impossible to build a helmet thats going to provide serious protection while still allowing enough ventilation so you don't overheat your noggin. Another problem is the testing method which makes it so the only way a helmet will pass is if the foam is very hard, which means that your head deforms before the foam. If the foam doesn't deform then it defeats the point of a helmet. From what I read it seems like a helmet is quite good for preventing scrapes and even serious skin damage. The problem is they don't seem to be effective at preventing life threatening injuries. Plus they actually increase the risk of rotational injuries. You don't want your brain to twist inside of your head, its very bad.

To be honest though I'm biased. I hate wearing a helmet, it's uncomfortable and goofy looking. I do my best to ride safely which I think provides far far more security than any lil chunk of foam and plastic can provide.

Some ideas are more equal than others

PZ posted a fantastic comedian that I need to link to, enjoy!

T-Shirts

Just some random ass shirts that I found amusing. They aren't T-shirt hell amusing, but some of these I'd actually wear... some
Friends actually let friends do lots of stupid things. It's true ya know.
Horray for sarcasm.
Shirt from the future.
Life is like a box of terrible analogies.
Honk if your about to run me over.
The Internet was closed
Psychic Career
Only way I fight
The Communist Party
Spoiler Alert
Goldilocks
Stop destroying our planet
Emo Poems

Great Pic of Cool Places

The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth, which means none of them are actually alien, but some are pretty freakin cool.

Need a laugh?

The editors at Vanity Fair decided to take a look at Palin's resignation, school style. Ya know with a red pen. It's pretty funny, others are getting a kick out of her tweets.

Heroes

The term hero gets thrown around pretty flippantly in my opinion. For one thing victim of a tragedy is NOT synonymous with hero. This may offend some folks but when has that ever stopped me before? For example an office worker who died in the WTC trying to get out is a victim, the Police and Firemen who ran into that same building putting their own lives on the line to save others, those are clearly hero's or at least attempted hero's. Being a hero means putting your own safety aside in order to help someone else. Not every soldier is a hero, thats why they have medals for the exceptional ones. Like I said some people might take offense to this idea that just being in a certain uniform doesn't automatically make you a hero, to me it is offensive to the real heroes when people who haven't earned it are referred to as heroes.

Why do I bring this up? Because here are some real heros they saw a tragedy unfolding and they ran to see what they could do to help rather than running away.

If I could go anywhere right now....

It might just have to be here...
Come on who doesn't want to have breakfast with a Giraffe? Check out the link it actually sounds like a really cool family, and now you can stay with them at the worlds only giraffe hotel.

another pic of my bike... bikes

They're taking over! Lets see, in the foreground without the wheels is my baby. I was cleaning it and decided to take some pics. Behind that is my Bowery, my single speed beast that I tear around town on. Behind that is the tank, it easily weighs more than the other two combined, it's my dads old Schwinn super sport. Barely noticeable is my old Trek 800 mountain bike off to the right without wheels. I also had a POS huffy beach cruiser but I gave that to a friend.

Oh and I was reminded of something very important last week. If you are leaning hard into a corner, DON'T PEDAL! If you do the inside pedal can strike the ground lifting at least your rear tire off the ground at which point you're pretty much fucked. The problem for me is I'm still used to cars where you want to power out of the turn. Which does leave me wondering how one turns quickly on a fixie? The gray bike has the option of being a fixed gear meaning that if the rear wheel is turning then so are your feet, I tried it once and didn't care for it but maybe I'll try it again, its supposed to be good in slick conditions because you can tell the instant you lose traction.

Retesting Drivers

This subject came up at the time of the last kid getting hit by a car on a bike because the driver was 81 years old. But it wasn't talked about much because the police said age was not a factor it was a blind corner and there was nothing she could have done. I was recently reminded why retesting drivers is a good idea at any age.

I met a very cute woman who has gone partially blind in one eye. She warned her passenger, my friend, that she isn't a very good driver, especially at night. There was a little bit of driving on the sidewalk involved with there commute. This isn't just an age thing, this woman is probably younger than me or about the same age. She is a very nice person from the one time I met her but her ability to drive safely has changed. She had a tumor removed from her brain in the the process lost considerable amounts of vision in one eye. Not trying to say anything bad about this wonderful person I'm just using her as an example of why retesting drivers is not just an age issue and should not be thought of as one. People change and just because they knew the rules when they were 16 doesn't meant they are still capable of driving in a safe manner. Plus anyone who claims age discrimination is forgetting that we already discriminate based on age when it comes to driving, but apparently age discrimination is only acceptable when discriminating against those who can't vote, which is also age discrimination.

I need one of these

I'm in no rush to get a biking jersey, they seem really handy as they have pockets on the back so you can grab stuff you might want while riding snacks and what not. The problem with them is they are meant to be rather tight fitting and at this point my torso does not need to be shown off for the world. Plus they are freaking expensive as a cheap one is $45 and can easily cost double that. Next year I plan on having a body that I don't mind people seeing, the idea that I could really do that still amazes me but that is the goal. So I'm screwing around and saw some beer jersey's, now that seems fitting. I figure you have immediately lower expectations from other riders if you're wearing a beer jersey. Unfortunately they didn't have many brands of beer I like and most of them looked like normal jerseys which is exactly the look I'd like to avoid.

But I would totally rock this (next year - not sure what size yet)
Or if I felt like being less offensive, hey it happens occasionally, then this is also a good one. Actually I like their beer better.Either one, or both would make a great christmas present.

Speaks for its self

I didn't have the sound on cause PZ warned me to turn it down at work, and I'm at work, actually it was already muted... not that you care. Now watch some evolution.

If that seemed slow it was roughly 800 million years a minute.

UPDATE: that should be 800,000 years not 800 million, Thank you Riker for pointing that out. So yeah its about 3.5 million years of evolution not 3.5 billion years. Sorry for the brain fart.

Another Bike Incident

14 year old airlifted to hospital after being hit by a car. That sucks kid. Hope he's doing alright. Hate to say it but thats why you're supposed to ride with traffic and not against it. The report says that the 81 year old driver never had a chance of avoiding the cyclist because of a blind curve. I do have a hard time believing that reaction time couldn't be a contributing factor, but either way it was still the fault of the kid on the bike.

I'm starting to think that I should wear my helmet more often. Then again I don't ride the wrong way down the street, and at the speeds I'm usually going if I hit a car head on a helmet isn't going to do shit, unless I wear a motorcycle helmet which would probably weigh about the same as my bike. That said there has been one incident (I try not to call them accidents, they may not be intentional but they are still someones fault) where a guy on his bike was minding his own business going down a busy four lane 40mph road that I've traveled myself a few times when someone turned into a gas station and hit him. Guess shit can happen to anyone.

Gettin in shape

I've always been in some sort of shape, now I'm just looking for it to be more renaissance and less modern art, something a bit less free form.

So here are a few links for training stuff, the first is about VO2max which is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use for a sustained period of time. This number they said is pretty much set by genetics, if you're totally unfit you can increase it maybe 15-20% an athlete can only hope to increase it by 3-5% The one you can really do something about is Lactate Threshold the subject of the second article.

I'm contemplating my first group ride. The local bike shop (Kingsbury's Cyclery - slightly more info) is the meeting point for twice weekly rides. Tuesday's and Thursday's, I was warned to avoid Tuesday because they are far more competitive and will leave me in their dust. I haven't seen the Thursday crew but they are supposed to be more relaxed. I'm not sure if this means I'll be able to keep up but I think I might try. Wish me luck, I might need it, especially if they go after the hills. I hate hills.

0.2 seconds behind

Not bad Lance, not bad.

I really do have a one track mind. For a few years I was into politics, that made me realize how much religion fucks with the political process, that got me into the science vs religion battle, which got me into science. All of these issues have been given plenty of play here at QR, there has also always been a healthy dose of personal catharsis via writing here what I often can't say in life. I just seem to get focused on something and I get really into it for a while, some of these last longer than others. The paintball thing didn't last very long, probably because my marker (AKA - gun) didn't last very long. Now I'm focused on biking. I'm really loving it, and with all the stuff thats been going on with my personal life I wasn't able to ride much and when I did hop back on my bike I noticed how much lung endurance I had lost in that short period of time. I'm really hoping this isn't a fad, for quite a while I've been trying to lose weight and it's going quite well. I've gone from a peak of 273lbs to 211 today. My goal used to be to break 200 and call that good enough. I just didn't want to be fat anymore, but thats no longer my goal, now I want to actually get in shape. I even bought my first pair of Lycra shorts yesterday, and while I know I'm going to get teased they do make for a much more comfortable ride. My upper body is still very squishy but my legs are looking pretty decent so I'm honestly not that embarrassed with the skin tight shorts. Anyway at least for the moment my mind is stuck in biking mode, although I am talking to a lady but thats far to early to be concerned with. Plus as I get in shape my confidence is increasing and thats really what I've been lacking when trying to approach the fairer sex. Shit I've spent so long slowly writing this that the next stage of the tour is probably over and now my headline is silly. Guess I should just post this already.