Archive: May 10, 2010

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Monday,  05/10/10  09:13 PM

This is a wonderful Monday... why?  Because I was home all day (working, in my home office), and I get to stay home all day tomorrow, too (working, in my home office).  I stay home from work so I can work from home :)  And man I have some fascinating stuff going on, a big marketing project and some interesting technical work too.  Just need more time!

Also had a chance to attend a *great* event tonight, a Ride with George Hincapie, who is spokesperson for Amgen's Breakaway from Cancer campaign.  (More on that later.)

And so now... filter pass!

In re: Arizona's immigration enforcement law; of 64 chases last month, not one criminal was an American citizen.  Hmmm... 

Important work from Williams Cycling; their annual survey of the Climbs of the Amgen Tour of California.  Pay particular attention to stage 8 which features four laps up Rockstore and down Decker.  I must tell you I am disgusted by the ride in the video, who climbed Rockstore in 10.5 minutes; my *best* is 15.5, and it normally takes me 17-18.  But anyway it is interesting commentary on all the climbs, and this year there are many of them! 

Who would have predicted this?  Alexander Vinokourov leads Giro after stage three.  Wow.  There's a long way to go, but Vino is back.  How cool would it be if he could actually win the Giro?  He's one the Vuelta already - I was there to watch him do it :) - and he's come close in the Tour de France also.  He'll be a worthy teammate of Alberto Contador for sure...  and you know they are testing the piss out of him and so he is not doping anymore.  If he ever was. 

Wired: The Lost Tribes of Radio Shack.  You can see why they've had to change their business model - they've gone from serving hobbyists resisters and capacitors to serving teens cell phones - but it really is too bad.  I was one of the lost tribe; I can definitely remember making my own color organ to blink lights in time to music.  Man that was 100 years ago... 

The power of Why.  Don't start with What, go to How, and then to Why, instead start with Why, go to How, and then What.  Okay! 

I always find it slightly weird that Who, What, When, Where, and How are all factual, but Why is always conjectural.  Why is not like the others... it depends on human motivation.

A definitive reference: How to embed videos in your web pages with HTML5.  Okay.  Mostly I just link to videos embedded on other pages, because 1) it is a lot of work to embed videos in a cross-platform manner [BTW HTML5 doesn't address this at all] and 2) most people don't click through to watch videos anyway [BTW HTML5 doesn't address this at all]. 

American Digest: In which great matters of state are decided.  Be careful with this one, I almost blew coke out of my nose :) 

Nashville's storm babies, part II, yields the ZooBorn of the day: a little Tapir.

 

 

A Ride with George Hincapie

Monday,  05/10/10  09:56 PM

Tonight I had the privilege of attending A Ride with George Hincapie, a fund-raising event associated with the Amgen Tour of California, for whom all-everything rider George Hincapie is a spokesperson.  A new DVD is out about George - named, not surprisingly, A Ride with George Hincapie, and they screened it, but they also had some nice Q&A with him, and he signed tee-shirts and stuff, and overall it was just really nice.


yippee we got to go

You might now know that in addition to having won all sorts of races himself - he is the current U.S. Champion - George was also part of eight victorious Tour de France teams, a record; all seven of Lance Armstrong's winning teams (the only one who was), as well as Alberto Contador's victory in 2007.


the cover of the DVD, this photo was of the movie theater screen
that's George competing in Paris-Roubaix, the race with which he is most associated

Turns out George is from a cycling background - Columbian! - and grew up in Queens and Long Island, and now lives in South Carolina, and is about the nicest person you could possibly imagine.


George signing my Amgen Tour of California tee-shirt, which I am wearing right now :)

This year George is riding with BMC, which is World Champion Cadel Evans' team, too, so he'll be supporting Cadel in the tour and may well get his ninth victory.  Meanwhile he's here at the ATOC while Cadel is riding the Giro, and will be hunting stage wins.  He's had quite a few in previous years' TOCs, so he'd be considered a favorite, especially on stages which combine climbing with sprinting.


George answered every questions, politely, non-controversially, but honestly
you can see why he's considered one of the good guys in the peloton

One of the coolest things was discovering that George loves the Conejo Valley area - and Rockstore is one of his favorite climbs.  Cannot wait to see it - final stage of this year's tour!


how often do you get to sit in a movie theater with a nice glass of wine
while watching cycling?

not often enough :)

 
 

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