Recently in Interesting Reading Category

The Smithsonian Institute is sponsoring free museum day this Saturday and/or Sunday depending on the venue.  Some popular local venues that are participating in the free admission day are: Portsmouth Childrens Museum, Norfolk Botanical Garden, and one of our favorites, the Virginia Living Museum. 
More Virginia museums can be found here: Museum Search | Smithsonian Magazine

Boo Bee Juice Drink for kids is now available in the UK in four great flavors: Strawberry, Orange, Mixed Fruit, and Pineapple.

Ok…. that’s just a cool name for a drink.  I want some of that for my next race.  Even better I will get some for my son to take to school with him in his lunch box.  I can hear the conversation now…. “Hey, Bobby do you want to taste some of my Boo Bee?”  Even better the results when little Sally is overheard by the lunch lady asking Bobby the same question. 

More information, if you really need it can be found at the UniBev site: Boo Bee Juice for Kids.

Every once in a while you come across something that tears at your heart just a little.  Today I came across this story someone wrote about a neighborhood tomcat that they called Ugly.  Seeing as I have always had a soft spot for animals it kind of got to me.  It reminded me of the ugly tomcat that I used to feed at my old townhouse.  Maybe I could have or should have done more.  I fed this poor cat that was beat up and abused.  Kids picked on him, but despite all that happened to him he only wanted someone affection.  Finally after weeks of suffering with an injury that appeared to become infected he just disappeared.  I wonder if I had just shown a little more care and concern if maybe he would still be around today showing me some unconditional affection...

Ugly The Cat
Everyone in the apartment complex I lived in knew who Ugly was, Ugly was the resident tomcat.  Ugly loved three things in this world: Fighting, Eating, and shall we say, Love.
The combination of these things combined with a life spend outside had their effect on Ugly.  To start with, he had only one eye, and where the other should have been was nothing but a gaping hole.  He was also missing his ear on the same side.  His left foot appeared to have been badly broken at one time and had healed at an unnatural angle, making him look like he was always turning the corner.  His tail had long since been lost, leaving only the smallest stub, which he would constantly jerk and twitch.
Ugly would have been a dark gray tabby, except for the sores covering his head, neck, even his shoulders with thick, yellowing scabs.  Every time someone saw Ugly there was the same reaction.  "That is one UGLY cat!!"
All the children were warned not to touch him, the adults threw rocks at him, hosed him down, squirted him when he tried to come in to their homes, or shut his paws in the door when he would not leave.
Ugly always had the same reaction.  If you turned the hose on him, he would stand there, getting soaked until you gave up and quit.  If you threw things at him, he would curly his lanky body around feet in forgiveness.  Whenever he spied children, he would come running meowing frantically and bump his head against their hands, simply begging for their love.  If you ever picked him up he would immediately begin suckling on your shirt, earrings, and whatever else he could find.
One day Ugly shared his love with the neighbor's huskies.  They did not respond so kindly, and Ugly was attacked.  From my apartment I could her his screams, and tried to rush to his aid.  By the time I got to where he was laying it was apparent Ugly's sad life was almost to an end.
Ugly lay in a wet circle, his back legs and lower back twisted grossly out of shape, a gaping tear in the white strip of fur that ran down his front.  As I picked him up and tried to carry him home I could hear him wheezing and gasping.  I could feel him struggling.  I must be hurting him terribly I thought.
Then I felt a familiar tugging, sucking sensation on my ear.  Ugly, in so much pain, suffering and obviously dying was trying to suckle my ear!  I pulled him closer to me and he bumped the palm of my hand with his head.  Then he turned his one golden eye towards me, and I could hear the distinct sound of purring!  Even in the great pain, that ugly battle scarred cat was asking only for a little affection, perhaps compassion.
At that moment I thought Ugly was the most beautiful, loving creature I had ever seen.  Never once did he try to bite or scratch me, or even try to get away, or struggle in any way.  Ugly just looked up at me completely trusting in me to relieve his pain.
Ugly dies in my arms before I could get inside, but I sat and held him for a long time afterwards, thinking about how one scarred, deformed little stray could so alter my opinion about what it means to have true pureness of spirit, to love so totally and truly.  Ugly taught me more about giving and compassion than a thousand books, lectures, or talk show specials ever would.  For that I will always be thankful.
He had been scarred on the outside, but I was scarred on the inside, and it was time for me to move on and learn to love truly and deeply.  To give my total to those I cared for.
Many people want to be richer, more successful, well liked, beautiful, but for me, I will always strive to be Ugly.

Here's the original version:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/Tarathiel/ugly.jpg
  

This article was given to me this weekend by Karen Hanson this weekend at Langley Speedway.  I do not recall exactly where she got it or who the original author is.  Either way it is very good reading and should be read by anyone intending to go out on a group ride or participate in a race.  This article can be downloaded in .doc format here thanks to my darling wife who took the time to type it up so I could put it up here on my little corner of the internet.

Riding the Pace Line

Prologue

A pace line is a group of riders who trade off the lead to share the effort of riding in front so that the other riders can rest in the draft that is created. Some of the benefits of a pace line are safety, efficiency, and speed. Pace lines that lack discipline can be annoying and even dangerous.

This post is more for my future reference than anything but if it helps someone out then great.....
After much hair pulling with a couple of "techs" we finally got our new Ricoh 2500 setup to only distribute incoming faxes by email and not print them out.
It is a multi-step process that seems to be a lot more complicated than it needs to be. The first step is to get the general smtp and fax settings properly. This can be tested by scanning a document and sending it to an email address. Next set up the email address in the address book for the destination address that you want to send the faxes to. For example fax@somedomain.com. The destination address must be a valid email or distribution list address that can receive email with attachments. The next setting changes are only available in the fax machine, for some reason they are nowhere to be found in the web management interface. The first setting is to enable the forwarding functions. Access it by User Mode/Settings > Fax Features > Forwarding. Highlight the "On" setting then "Ok" Next setup the destination for forwarding, this is the important part. Choose to display destination list and select the destination address that was setup in the previous step. Click "ok" The last steps are to prevent faxes from printing. Go to Fax Parameter Settings and select Electronic Output in the Destination Type Priority option. Finally the parameter setting in the machine itself for "Printing Memory Transfer Files" has to be turned off. Its SW11 option 6. Now all faxes should forward off to email and not print anymore!

It's been a little slow recently as far as the cycling scene goes, but I finally had a race this past weekend. Tripower Cycling Club hosted the Senior State Crit Championship at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex (aka Scorchplex) and man was it HOT!!! My race started at 11:30 and it was already in the 90's! The racers that started later in the day had the pleasure of riding in temps above 100! Pure insanity!!!
As for my race... it was a typical Cat 5 race. Lots of squirrley new riders in a field of approximately 30 riders. One rider that stood out amongst the group was none other than the famous Casey Crit "Don't Touch Me" guy! If you ever see this guy, somewhat young, skinny, tall, and at first glance looks like he should be really fast.... STAY AWAY FROM HIM!!!!! The first couple of laps had him riding in the middle of the pack doing bunny hops and chanting. I think the chant was something about everyone around him doping or something like that. Then there were a couple of diliberate nascar style swerves. Maybe he thought that would help warm up his tires. Later in the race he flatted after drifting in to one of my team mates wheels. He was on the left side of the course when the tire blew. Rather than going off to the left side he locked up his brakes and went right across the entire pack to go in to the gravel parking lot on the right. Riders were locking up and sliding every which direction to avoid him. He did at least announce to everyone at the top of his lungs as he was skidding through that he was "DNF and flatted" I am sure it was our fault that his tire flatted because we are all doped up!
There were a few other instances with riders not holding their line and other typical Cat 5 adventures, but overall it was a pretty fast and fun race. Matt Keane and someone from Tripower succeeded in a break away that had them about 30 seconds ahead of the peleton until Matt overheated and had to drop out. Poor Matt! The last lap had another wreck in the third corner of the course. This was, I think, the third accident of the race in that same turn. All of which were caused by the same thing: riders going in to the corner thinking that they were going too fast and drifting out in to other riders. Luckily I was clear of the mess because it occured right behind me as I started my sprint towards the finish. I finished fourth! My computer showed an average of 23.6 mph for 16.5 miles during the 40 minute race. I do not react well to too much heat so immediately after the race I packed up and headed home to get a shower and cool down. Otherwise I would have been hurting the rest of the weekend. This was almost a BIG mistake!
I learned that it is not good to leave before results were posted because..... mistakes happen. As it turns out the finish camera malfunctioned and did not record the finish. To make matters even worse no one had been hand scoring! Luckily, my sister, who happens to be a USA Cycling official had been watching the race as a spectator. She caught the fact that the results were hosed up and protested for me. The initial results listed Matt Keane, who dropped out, as finishing in first and I was not even shown as finishing at all! I could have potentially done all that work and sweating for nothing! Fellow Fat Frogs team member, Matt Williams, whom was positive he finished in the top 15 was not listed anywhere either. So this weekend taught me a few lessons: avoid the "Dont Touch Me Guy" and don't ever leave the race before the results are posted!
It felt good to be racing again even if it was way too hot!!!
On an unrelated note.... my three week old Mini Cooper S isn't new anymore. An 87 year old lady who didn't know her own phone number or address plowed in to the side of it on First Colonial Rd on Friday afternoon. Amber was driving it home from work when the lady pulled out of a parking lot and ran right in to the side of it. Then didnt even want to stop because she didnt realize she hit the car! Luckily no one was injured and the Mini was still driveable.

Every once in a while I have to get up on my soap box to vent and this blog is the perfect place to do that.  The minimal number of visitors to this site probably don't want to hear me vent.  Much less vent on a serious topic such as euthanasia, but I am going to do it anyways!  That's why I have this blog!

What started this is an article published at news.yahoo.com about people going to Mexico to purchase pentobarbital.  They purchasing the pentobarbital in Mexico then taking the drug home for safe keeping in the event that they ever become terminally ill.  That article deals with one of the few topics that has always gotten me fired up. That is euthanasia. Overall the article was a fact based typical news report on the topic of the availability of the "the Mexico option" but there was a quote at the end of the article that really irritated me. The quote was made by Lori Kehoe, a representative for the New York based Right to Life Movement. She said "We shouldn't treat people as animals are treated. Every day of life is to be valued as a gift".
How can someone possibly think that allowing a person the choice to end their suffering can be treating them like an animal or taking a gift away from them. Not being able to care for myself and having to have someone else do everything for me is more like being an animal than a human. For example, a person that is terminally ill, suffering constant pain, can not breathe on their own, can not get up to go to the bathroom, and has to be fed by a tube or by an assitant. How is that a dignified life? How is that life any better than that of an animal? That person should have the right to choose whether or not they go on suffering.
I watched my mother deteriorate for several years. Towards the end she was suffering constant excruciating pain and could not breathe on her own. She had to be assisted with everything she did. She had absolutely no quality of life, she was suffering. At this stage near the end I unfortunately did not discuss with her her personal feelings, but I can fairly accurately say what they were because we always agreed on the topic of euthanasia. She would have wanted the right to end her misery. She was suffering. I am sure she felt that she was making her family suffer. She knew that there was no hope for a recovery and she would not have wanted to have family remember in this way. She would have wanted family to remember her as the loving and caring person that she was before being bed ridden and miserable.
I have always wondered why people are not given the same rights as animals. The only reasons I can fathom are: That the family members are being selfish trying to hold on to something rather than letting it go and religious beliefs. Neither one of those reasons is one that should prevent someone from having the personal choice to end their life. We will allow a pet to end it's misery and suffering by allowing it a painless end. Yet, a person who is suffering is sentenced to an extended period of indignity and torture. I for one would not want force my family to suffer with the task of taking care of me for months or years while I have no quality of life. Those that would make me suffer in this state are being selfish.

Here's the link to the article that got me started... Euthanasia tourists snap up pet shop drug in Mexico - Yahoo! News

This is a post that is COMPLETELY different than a normal post here but this product deserves some "props".....
We picked up this new product at work called Speedy-Clean Concrete Dissolver. This is the best product that I have ever seen for removing concrete and mortar off of equipment. Even better is it's acid free! All you do is spray Speedy-Clean Concrete Dissolver on the equipment, wait, then wash it off with cold water. Unless there is an excessive build up of concrete the one application seems to be enough to remove most concrete. This stuff is really amazing! We tried it on an concrete trowel with a pretty significant build up of both old and new concrete and with in a short period of time all of the concrete was dissolved! The paint remained untouched and looked as good as when we started!  This product can be used for a lot more than just a concrete dissolver or remover though.
We have had reports that this product also works well for removing the film of grout from the surface of tile after new installations or re-grouting.  It can also be used for exposing aggregate in decorative concrete work.  This is just a really cool product!
Email me or hit the following link for more a information sheet with more details. Speedy-Clean Acid-Free Concrete Dissolver

Not of the normal cycling and tech stuff, but California is the second state to allow gay marriage. New York Times has more information here.  For some of my family members this could be a pretty big deal in the future.

Normally on a Monday morning I would write about the epic rides of the weekend, how hard we trained, or maybe some cool thing I came across on the internet over the weekend. This isn't going to be one of those posts.
One of the Virginia Cycling Association members posted a link to his blog about the wife of a blogger/cyclist named Elden who refers to himself as The Fat Cyclist. The link on his blog took me to a post titled "Like Dandelion Seeds". At first what I thought was going to be a completely innocuous post turned out to be heart wrenching story about his family's ordeals as his wife fights cancer. I had not previously seen Elden's site so I was completely taken by how openly he writes about having the discussions with his children about their mother's illness. Another post titled "Gratitude" discusses what it is like to now to know your loved one is going to die, but not know when, and not have the abilities to do all of those "gotta do it before you die" things such as travel to exotic locations and skydiving. He goes in to depth about a lot of topics that most people would try to internalize.
Prior to reading Elden's posts I didn't know him or his family but now they feel like friends. Reading about his wife's battle and then listening to a friend's stories about their battle with recently diagnosed cancer has got me thinking about how grateful I am for those around me, my health, and everything else.  As I sat there at the game with my wife watching my son, who is on the honor roll, play baseball and the game went a little longer than planned, that was alright, I was with family and all is well. This weekend really opened my eyes to the fact that everything could change in an instant and I should really cherish what I have and not be so concerned about the other stuff.
On May 19th The Fat Cyclist will start selling some cool cycling jerseys with all of the profits going to help support his family and his wife's medical costs. For $70 the jersey isn't priced too high and you will know where the profit is going. So seriously consider picking one up in the 19th. If the $70 jersey is too much there is also a paypal link on his site.

I am not the only cyclist on the 'net that has this strange infatuation with the whole lolcat thing. Mike with Gamjams.net came across the image to the left while checking out Bikereg. The image is a banner advertisement for a 24 hour mountain bike race called the 24 Hours of Great Glen. It is taking place in Pinkham Notch, NH which happens to be one of the most beautiful parts of the country. A quick check of the site showed even more lolcat pictures. So, the 24 Hours of Great Glen race may suck due to the fact that it's 12 hours away and lasts for 24 hours, but at least the promotors have a sense of humor. What I can not understand is how I can like this stuff when I can not stand to see such horribly misspelled words in the "real world".

Congratulations to Matt Keane the Wintergreen Hill Climbing Champion. I don't know how a "flat lander" did it but he did! Great job Matt! Picture credit goes to Martin: Picasa Web Albums - Martin

I wish I could have done better, but a combination of a stomach bug and lack of proper preparation did me in. I should have gone up with the team the weekend before and ridden the route with people that have done it before so that I could be mentally prepared for the suffer-ama that Wintergreen is. The fact that my stomach has been "off" and cramping for the three days before Wintergreen and is still not right didn't help either. Anyways, I will chalk this one up to a learning experience and be better trained and more prepared next year.

Jared from Haymarket Bikes has been keeping his blog updated with information from the Speed Week that the Haymarket Bikes team is participating in. Check it out: http://jarednieters.blogspot.com/

Here's a slideshow of some images they have posted from the races:

Some things just have to be posted...

This is Gilbert in his sporting his Sport Kilt

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=153477479&albumID=1387547&imageID=20035707

I haven't lost my job, but it's time to make a move.  Leave it to me to try and make a move during a freaking recession.    More details to come...
But if anyone knows of an opening for someone with experience in customer service management, operations, equipment rentals, some web design, photography, and some IT please let me know.

Fosswire.com has posted an excellent list of commonly used linux commands in .pdf format.

Here's the link: http://files.fosswire.com/wpu/2008/04/ubunturef.pdf
I uploaded it to my files section for "safekeeping" as well it can be found here.

Amber recently started her own blog and she's been updating it regularly too! Her most recent post is a congratulations to me for placing third this weekend at that Casey Criterium. She deserves a lot of gratitude from me for putting up with my horrible memory for dates, crappy moods, and most of all this chaotic sports season. Between Devon's baseball and my biking our time together has been very limited. She has also been spending a lot of her time carting Devon around to his practices so that I would have time to train.

Take some time to check out her blog... http://www.stormyworld.net/amber

This was a fun filled weekend of racing. Saturday was the Tour De Beach Crit Race at the Sportsplex in Virginia Beach, Sunday was the JRVS/Casey Criterium at the Todd Stadium in Newport News, Virginia.
Saturday was a perfect day for a race, it was sunny and the temperature was perfect. The downside was that I felt like crap! Maybe it was that bottle of Stone IPA the night before, more than likely it was the pollen and allergies though. My head was stuffed up, my sinuses were hurting like something fierce, and my legs were "achy". The warm up had me feeling a little better but as I went in to the race I knew I didn't have it. I figured I would do my best to help out the team on this one even if I wasnt going to do well. We had a great showing of Frogs and the perfect opportunity to work on some team tactics. At one point I was off the front with David from Tripower. I believe that I stayed out front a bit longer than I should have which is evident in the race results showing my 14th place finish. At least it was still good for some points for the team. Congratulations to Richie who put out a smoking sprint to finish second place.
Sunday was a completely different day. Rain showers, cooler temperatures, and a course that I don't like. I almost skipped going to this one due to the fact that I just have too much riding on my real job to risk it with injuries from this hobby of mine. Despite my concerns I was feeling good. When I arrived I recieved reports of several crashes. The day was not going well! Two strong and experienced women riders, BJ and Anne Hardy, crashed and were transported to the hospital.  BJ has a broken collar bone, a slight concussion, and a stitched up knee. Anne supposedly knocked her head pretty hard but I dont have any other information on her. There were also other crashes during the day, one of which I witnessed up close and personal. It was only a few minutes before my race was to start and the Cat 4 race had about three laps to go when several crashed and rolled over each other right in front of us! One of those riders had to be transported off in an ambulance. Talk about one heck of a way to break my confidence level! I was doubting my decision to race even more.
During warm up I was feeling strong and I was already there so I finally decided to line up and do this race. Even if it ended up being unsafe I could fall off the back and count it as a mass start for my Cat 4 upgrade. Gilbert did made his chief ref announcements and recommended we keep the "rubber on the road" and believe me I had every intention of doing just that. Going in to the first 90 degree right was interesting and the pace was fast for the first couple of laps. The pace of course slowed down in the middle part of the race with Richie Langley doing one heck of a pull on the front for a few laps. Several Frogs pulled attacks and worked the pace up. I kept expecting the Casey crew to try to repeatedly attack and break down the pack, but they never came through. Once again it was the Frogs and a couple of other guys that were really showing the strength. Going in to the last few laps I was still feeling pretty good so moved up towards the front of the pack. On the last lap I hammered it in to the inside of the final corner passed a few riders to work the sprint and take myself to a third place finish.

I hope that BJ, Anne, and anyone else that was injured this weekend will recover fast and get back out there racing in no time!
This coming week is a "No Devon" which means plenty of time to train. No races next weekend means I will have the time to get in some much needed long rides and some Pungo Ferry Bridge work to prepare for the Wintergreen Ascent. It's only 12 days away!!

K-blog has posted some great pictures in his Picasa Web Albums from the Fat Frog's Langley Speedway Crit and the April 15th Tuesday Night Training Crits. This picture of his is one of the best shots I have seen in a while....