Snortblog

Behold, the couchbike.

Japanese video showing how to neatly fold a t-shirt in seconds.

Lots more tricks on handling everything from tofu to bandaids at http://www.youtube.com/results?search=urawaza.

I found a really cool free site that you can use to track endurance activity statistics, namely bicycling in my case. I’ve never kept track before but know that I’ve gradually ramped up over the last year. They generate charts and graphs, an activity RSS feed for me, and lots of other goodies I have yet to discover, I’m sure. http://www.weendure.com/user/snort/. I’ve added a link in the sidebar.

I toured d’organics yesterday, and then some. I bicycled 85 miles, a new daily record for me, by far. I had signed up to do 100k (62 miles), but took a wrong turn. I really got my money’s worth. The route was in the beginings of Texas hill country, so there were lots of opportunities to get the blood racing. It was beautiful country, Wimberley was particularly quaint.

I particularly liked Hays county road 220–beautiful country side, not too much traffic, and it looked like there was public access to Onion creek, for swimmin’. Afterwards, I headed to Barton Springs to cap off a most austintatious day.

Things I wish I would have brought with me:

• Good map
• Compass
• Another water bottle

I’m going deeper. I’m doing my first organized quasi athletic event since elementary school. The Tour d’Organics is a bike ride with rides of varying lengths held in several U.S. cities including Austin, Texas. The ride includes several options from a 100-mile ride to a 25-mile ride. I’m doing the 100 kilometer (~62 miles). I’m working my way up to doing 100 miles in a day, but wanted to try something shorter first. I’m really looking forward to getting to know some new places to bike and visiting some local organic farms.

The bike geek transformation continues. I’ve already got click in shoes. Today, I got the padded spandex bike shorts. The purpose of wearing spandex–which I never would have guessed in the 80’s–is to wick moisture away from the body to the surface of the material where it can transpire. It also helps that they’re skin tight. They’re clothes for you to sweat in. I still felt like an errant super hero looking for a gig.

– Updated Links –

I was marveling at the following video from youtube mentioned on boingboing. It features Ronnie James Dio, whose most enduring legacy may very well be the devil horns. Dio was in a band called Elf in the early 70’s that was amazing, and did everything from straight blues to boogie woogie. Elf was a completely different beast from the metal bands that made Dio famous, but there’s no mistaking his satanically majestic voice. In the music heaven in my mind, Dio, Ethel Merman and Freddie Mercury will be together onstage forever.

I was googling around a bit and came across rock and roll paydirt, an MP3 download of Dio doing Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog. You can find it and a number of Elf/Elves songs at http://www.padavona.com/mp3.html.

The feds are looking for Jimmy Hoffa’s remains near Detroit. After years of gardening, I’ve dug up some weird things and have joked about finding Hoffa’s remains many times. I’d hate to lose a good one liner, but I’d also love to know what happened.

Asked if she wanted sugar in her tea, my wife replied, “I like my tea straight. Like my men”.

Last night, a couple pirate jokes came up.

Did you hear about the new pirate movie?

It’s rated arrrr!

We talked about why pirate jokes are so great and decided it’s partially because they’re a safe target. If you make fun of pirates, chances are you’re not going to offend anyone. Imagine the exception. “Why, my grandfather was a pirate! I’ve had this eye patch since I was a baby. And a hook and peg leg.”

Fantagonism

A condition of being experienced when trying to determine who turned a fan off, turned a fan on, or changed fan speed.