You know you're living in 2004 when...

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.
6. You go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner.
7. You make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.
8. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.
10. You learn about your redundancy on the 11 o'clock news.
11. Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.
12. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
13. Every commercial on television has a website at the bottom of the screen.
14. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
15. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.
16. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)
17. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
18. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
19. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
20. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

This is pretty cool

http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~moraes/illusion.html

Zipp 404 front wheel

I was looking at the Zipp 404 front wheels on eBay in the fragile hopes that someone was selling just the front wheel (since when I last looked, they only came as a $1700 set), and found a cracked one, and not much else. About resigned to have to buy a used set I toggled over to Excel Sports to check the specs and... they are selling singles now!!!

So, I shall have the new front wheel before the HOT Championships and I will be able to standardize on a tubular platform!!!

The Rain

It's been raining tons here recently. The last two nights we've had spectacular high-level lightning storms. You can't see any lighthing bolts, but they light up the clouds and are almost constant. Last night I didn't think they would hit us: too far north, but they dropped about 4" on us starting at 11:30.

Tonight, they just started again. Although we probably won't get as much tonight, it has been nice knowing I won't have to water the grass for a couple days.

Now let's hope it dries up in time for my ride tomorrow...

Can't wait to get some of these

Olympic Tech: Bobby J and his funky chainrings
By Andrew Juskaitis
VeloNews Technical Editor
This report filed August 18, 2004
When Bobby Julich crossed the finish line just 26.45 seconds behind teammate Tyler Hamilton in Wednesday's Olympic individual time trial, it wasn't just a victory for a man and his country-technology also won in the streets of Athens.

Helping to power Julich's bike were two very unusual chainrings that could very well transform the way we propel our bicycles in the future. Julich was riding a pair of French made, out-of-round, "Osymetric" chainrings which Julich claims have helped him all season.

Now before you say, "Biopace," think again. In a phone interview with VeloNews from France designer Jean-Louis Talo was clear to point out that his patented out-of-round chainrings are considerably different that Shimano's original Biopace and Biopace II chainrings.

"Biopace did very little to address the dead-spot in a rider's pedaling stroke," Talo asserted. "My chainrings are designed to optimize the power portion of the stroke while minimizing the dead-spot. If you look closely, you can see my chainrings aren't just oval or elliptical as others have been, but shaped entirely to take advantage of a rider's leg musculature. The geometry we use is two successive curves having a unique symmetry, both with a central point of rotation. When the pedal is up [at 90 degrees] a rider's strength is minimal so the ring radius is small as well. When the pedal comes near to horizontal, the rider's strength is more, so the chainring is bigger to take advantage of that. Unlike Biopace, my rings constantly change radius to take full advantage of the complete power stroke of a rider. This is the first time this has been accomplished in a chainring."

Talo pointed to some of the impressive data that he claims was obtained from independent testing carried out in Europe. He reports improvements of between 5- and 15-percent gains in efficiency which can result in a 3-percent gain in speed (given identical input effort). Talo also claims his chainrings can help alleviate chronic knee stress issues by providing more mechanical advantage when a rider's knee is bent at 90 degrees (one of the most stress-prone positions of a rider's power stroke).

This isn't the first time Julich has raced the Osymetric chainrings. It was almost one year ago that we saw these strange looking rings on Julich's bike in Hamilton, Ontario Canada during the 2003 World Road Championships. There he claimed that the rings, "we good for 5 seconds per kilometer."

Julich used the unusual rings at the Vuelta a Pais Vasco this year, where he beat Hamilton (Phonak) by less than one second in a time trial at the Spanish stage race. Julich also raced the technology in the climbing stages of this year's Tour de France, although he chose to run only the inner ring to satisfy his Shimano sponsorship.

The Osymetric rings are not brand new to the cycling world. In fact, Talo has been testing variations of his rings with professional teams, including the old Festina team, as well as individual riders - Jens Voigt, Alexander Vinokourov and Julich - since late 2000. Talo reports that riders favor the rings for climbing, and also feel they're an advantage in heavy-power flat stages (i.e. TT). The chainrings aren't' yet available here in the United States, but should soon be available through a major distributor (by Interbike Talo commented.)

If Julich's Athens success is any evidence of the rings' advantages look for resurgence of interest in out-of-round rings in the near future. One of us at VeloNews will be among the first North Americans to obtain the rings, so stay tuned for a report in an upcoming issue.

Drifting off the pace...

Week 7: Clasica San Sebastian
Say what?
After a long slumber through late spring and early summer, MP3ers were, in part, back for Round 6 of the World Cup, the HEW Classics.... Beck.... IS BACK. (okay, so I've used this before, but it's a good line)

It's crunch time -- only MP3 weeks left in the World Cup, and Mike Beck, despite picking Davide Rebellin over MP3 über-favorite Paolo Bettini for his #1, scored strong with Ivan Basso as his #3, to pull off the third best score for the week. Only former MP3 leader Julian Humphries and the surprising Bill Reams were able to pull off a better selection for the week -- they got Bettini and Rebellin in the right order, with solid choices of Basso and Freire for the #3 spot.

The fight for the top is a virtual dead-heat, however, with three MP3'ers within 100 points of the lead, with former "free of the organizer's curse" Frank "just call me Carpel Tunnel" Kurzawa not far behind.

It was a weak field for the dark horse competition, with Andy White taking the prize with his #3 choice of Juan Antonio Flecha. Fortunately, Juan didn't win today, as we are thus spared another demonstration of his goofy salute....

As the series winds down, the Cyborgs have produced disappointing results. Despite pattern recognition algorithms which are state of the art in predictive engineering, they wallow deep in the standings. WC2003 and Podium 2003 are breathing down the neck of Julian and yours truly. WC2004, deeper in the standings, showed signs of life however, with an impressive 305 points for this week. It's a strong enough showing to make some of the humans in the game nervous.

Just the facts, Ma'am
OVERALL SCORES
# player tot w01 w02 w03 w04 w05
1 Michael Beck 1523 294(1) 33(19) 176(2) 222(13) 308(6)
2 Jake North 1503 258(3) 53(6) 172(3) 350(1) 108(20)
3 Tom McMinn 1444 168(8) 82(3) 160(6) 290(8) 370(3)
4 Jeff Galloway 1441 268(2) 46(12) 148(9) 318(5) 112(19)
5 Frank Kurzawa 1317 168(8) 21(23) 112(15) 330(3) 204(12)
6 Alon G 1293 222(4) 43(13) 172(3) 92(23) 440(2)
7 Randy Wright 1228 168(8) 50(10) 196(1) 152(20) 262(7)
8 Dan Connelly 1167 72(19) 33(19) 94(19) 236(12) 252(8)
9 Julian Humphries 1150 0(24) 35(17) 144(11) 338(2) 153(15)
10 WC2003 1101 88(16) 82(3) 32(25) 326(4) 153(15)
11 Podium2003 1084 100(15) 30(21) 96(18) 180(17) 130(17)
12 Bill Reams 1077 212(5) 41(14) 70(21) 246(11) 184(13)
13 Andy White 1045 88(16) 120(2) 118(14) 190(15) 58(21)
14 Bill Strachan 1038 204(6) 36(15) 66(22) 310(6) 212(10)
15 WC2004 923 88(16) 9(24) 34(24) 42(25) 169(14)
16 Steven Mullins 921 24(20) 50(10) 140(12) 263(10) 444(1)
17 Kenneth D Lloyd 860 118(11) 52(7) 94(19) 302(7) 34(22)
18 David Henderson 811 24(20) 35(17) 156(8) 190(15) 310(4)
19 Lee Rusk 683 112(12) 36(15) 108(16) 106(22) 15(23)
20 Ryan Robinson 638 104(14) 52(7) 122(13) 50(24) 310(4)
21 Jason Rivers 613 24(20) 52(7) 160(6) 141(21) 14(24)
22 Karen White 606 0(25) 54(5) 148(9) 192(14) 212(10)
23 John Bartle 584 108(13) 0(25) 64(23) 290(8) 122(18)
24 Richard Whittington 572 24(20) 0(26) 0(26) 0(26) 232(9)
25 David Orr 508 180(7) 26(22) 104(17) 178(18) 0(25)
26 Shawn Liberty 328 0(26) 0(27) 172(3) 156(19) 0(26)
27 Kenneth D. LLoyd 232 0(27) 0(28) 0(27) 0(27) 0(27)
28 Dustoyevsky 126 0(28) 126(1) 0(28) 0(28) 0(28)

OVERALL SCORES
# player tot w06 w07
1 Michael Beck 1523 168(12) 322(3)
2 Jake North 1503 274(4) 288(7)
3 Tom McMinn 1444 64(17) 310(4)
4 Jeff Galloway 1441 289(2) 260(9)
5 Frank Kurzawa 1317 172(11) 310(4)
6 Alon G 1293 64(17) 260(9)
7 Randy Wright 1228 302(1) 98(17)
8 Dan Connelly 1167 242(8) 238(11)
9 Julian Humphries 1150 155(13) 325(1)
10 WC2003 1101 210(10) 210(14)
11 Podium2003 1084 274(4) 274(8)
12 Bill Reams 1077 0(21) 324(2)
13 Andy White 1045 248(7) 223(13)
14 Bill Strachan 1038 140(14) 70(19)
15 WC2004 923 276(3) 305(6)
16 Steven Mullins 921 0(22) 0(21)
17 Kenneth D Lloyd 860 260(6) 0(22)
18 David Henderson 811 96(16) 0(23)
19 Lee Rusk 683 214(9) 92(18)
20 Ryan Robinson 638 0(23) 0(24)
21 Jason Rivers 613 40(19) 182(15)
22 Karen White 606 0(24) 0(25)
23 John Bartle 584 0(25) 0(26)
24 Richard Whittington 572 134(15) 182(15)
25 David Orr 508 6(20) 14(20)
26 Shawn Liberty 328 0(26) 0(27)
27 Kenneth D. LLoyd 232 0(27) 232(12)
28 Dustoyevsky 126 0(28) 0(28)

TOP WEEKLY POINTS
breakers: weekly rank, overall, week
# player wk pts(wr)
1 Steven Mullins 5 444(1)
2 Alon G 5 440(2)
3 Tom McMinn 5 370(3)
4 Jake North 4 350(1)
5 Julian Humphries 4 338(2)
6 Frank Kurzawa 4 330(3)
7 WC2003 4 326(4)
8 Julian Humphries 7 325(1)
9 Bill Reams 7 324(2)
10 Michael Beck 7 322(3)

WEEK 7 PICKS
Week 7 picks, w/ points scored:
player rider#1 pts rider#2 pts rider#3 pts tot
Julian Humphries... Paolo Bettini.. 210 Davide Rebellin............ 100 Oscar Freire Gomez.......... 15 325
Bill Reams......... Paolo Bettini.. 210 Ivan Basso................. 64 Davide Rebellin............. 50 324
Michael Beck....... Davide Rebellin 150 Paolo Bettini.............. 140 Ivan Basso.................. 32 322
Frank Kurzawa...... Paolo Bettini.. 210 Davide Rebellin............ 100 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte. 0 310
Tom McMinn......... Paolo Bettini.. 210 Davide Rebellin............ 100 George Hincapie............. 0 310
WC2004............. Davide Rebellin 150 Paolo Bettini.............. 140 Oscar Freire Gomez.......... 15 305
Jake North......... Paolo Bettini.. 210 Igor Astarloa.............. 28 Davide Rebellin............. 50 288
Podium2003......... Paolo Bettini.. 210 Ivan Basso................. 64 Danilo Di Luca.............. 0 274
Alon G............. Paolo Bettini.. 210 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte 0 Davide Rebellin............. 50 260
Jeff Galloway...... Paolo Bettini.. 210 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte 0 Davide Rebellin............. 50 260
Dan Connelly....... Paolo Bettini.. 210 Igor Astarloa.............. 28 Jan Ullrich................. 0 238
Kenneth D. LLoyd... Davide Rebellin 150 Stefano Garzelli........... 12 Paolo Bettini............... 70 232
Andy White......... Paolo Bettini.. 210 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte 0 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni 13 223
WC2003............. Paolo Bettini.. 210 Michael Boogerd............ 0 Peter Van Petegem........... 0 210
Jason Rivers....... Igor Astarloa.. 42 Paolo Bettini.............. 140 Cadel Evans................. 0 182
Richard Whittington Igor Astarloa.. 42 Paolo Bettini.............. 140 Jan Ullrich................. 0 182
Randy Wright....... Danilo Di Luca. 0 Igor Astarloa.............. 28 Paolo Bettini............... 70 98
Lee Rusk........... Igor Astarloa.. 42 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte 0 Davide Rebellin............. 50 92
Bill Strachan...... Jan Ullrich.... 0 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte 0 Paolo Bettini............... 70 70
David Orr.......... George Hincapie 0 Axel Merckx................ 0 Igor Astarloa............... 14 14

Race Results

Another installment of the Heart of Texas Triathlon series and a surprisingly similar result to the first two races. Second place overall to the same guy. It's been the same one-two since the first race!

I had a good swim and a decent bike. My bike wasn't as sharp as it could have been because I have not been training on the bike because I needed so much work on my run. So, I was able to get away, but I wasn't able to put enough time on this guy (no more than 30 seconds). Subsequently, I got run down again. I got passed a mile into the three-mile run, but thought I would be able to peg him back after I started to close after the turnaround. No such luck. Ended up losing by 40 seconds. Getting tired of this.

Bad news is I have the fourth race in the series next weekend. I am going to have to figure something out on the run. Need to call a coach and start working.

New look and feel

Hope it isn't a shock to the sytem, but I changed the template for the blog in order to get less margin on either side so you wouldn't be scrolling down all the time. Hope no one was too attached to the narrow green...

Back on top...

The cycling betting pool I'm sucked into has kicked in again with the resumption of the fall classics. I was in the top spot after four races in the spring, but a disastrous set of pics in the fifth race dropped me to fourth. Today, I regained the top step on the podium with a third place today's HEW Cyclassics race. Here's a tidbit from the race organizer:

"When the CPU cycles cleared, it was Jake North emerging first overall, third best picks of the week. Randy Wright was #1, followed by Jeff Galloway. The result is a very close race, with 6 players within 200 points of the lead."

Here are the overall standings:

OVERALL SCORES
# player tot w06
1 Jake North 1215 274(3)
2 Michael Beck 1201 168(10)
3 Jeff Galloway 1181 289(2)
4 Tom McMinn 1134 64(15)
5 Randy Wright 1130 302(1)
6 Alon G 1033 64(15)
7 Frank Kurzawa 1007 172(9)
8 Bill Strachan 968 140(12)
9 Dan Connelly 929 242(6)
10 Steven Mullins 921 0(19)
11 WC2003 891 210(8)
12 Julian Humphries 825 155(11)
13 Andy White 822 248(5)
14 David Henderson 811 96(13)
15 Podium2003 810 274(3)
16 Bill Reams 753 0(20)
17 Ryan Robinson 638 0(21)
18 Karen White 606 0(22)
19 Kenneth D Lloyd 600 0(23)
20 Lee Rusk 591 214(7)
21 John Bartle 584 0(24)
22 David Orr 494 6(18)
23 WC2004 438 96(13)
24 Jason Rivers 431 40(17)
25 Shawn Liberty 328 0(25)
26 Richard Whittington 256 0(26)
27 Dustoyevsky 126 0(27)

Darlene with little Michael. Mike & Carey's newest addition. 

She almost looks like she knows what she's doing...

The 'Dillo Hunter

Mom remarked on a number of occasions last time she and Dad were here visiting that she had never seen an armadillo, live or dead. This is sort of a funny statement because in Austin, although they are the unofficial state mascot, they are a lot like rats. You really can't drive many places without coming along one or more dead ones in the road.

Anyhow, since then, I've been somewhat obsessed with photgraphing or getting some video of a live armadillo for my mother. I thought my best chance slipped away last weekend in Boerne when I nearly tripped over one outside the hotel on my way to load the bike before the race. No camera and no time, I watched him wander, unconcerned, back into the brush after nosing around the entrance to the hotel.

Last night, Darlene and I were driving around the neighborhood so I could clock off the mileage for this morning's long run. We saw something decent sized in the road ahead moving along the curb. It crossed in front of us and we saw it was a smallish, young armadillo. This time I was armed with my new camera phone. Although it doesn't take the highest quality pictures and doesn't have a flash, you can get an idea of what it looks like.

This little guy was pretty unconcerned by me following it closely and trying to snap pictures. I've seen much bigger; this guy was only about 16" snout to tail. He nosed around the curb, crawled over it and rooted around until it took him back into the brush.

So there you have it Mom. We'll try to get you another when you're here in town.

Young 'dillo hopping the curb. 

Grainy, top view just before he disappeared into the brush again.