Saturday, October 11, 2008

Oh if you become VP...

Freaking brilliant...


Friday, October 10, 2008

Off Season

What to do when the season (and by season, I mean my haphazard, mediocre, lackadaisical attempt to race) ends and cyclo-cross seems unappetizing?

Commute on your race bike! Weee!

Look for a rain bike, aka a cross bike with fenders and slick tires.

Beer

Margaritas

Read a book

Yoga

Obviously I'm bored off my ass. My slowly widening ass. So I have a plan for next season. Watch out.

I'm taking time away from my bike, a long time. I love my bikes. I love riding my bikes. But having only raced while in school, I've always felt guilty about training because I should have been doing homework or the like. So I want to completely erase that guilt. I want it to be completely enjoyable and fun.

I however, need to keep my strength and not get fat. So I'm going to swim my butt to extra fit. I also am going to supplement my swimming and occasional riding with some pilates to keep me limber. (when I dont feel like doing the trainer).

And finally I need a few races to aim for:

Willamette (road)
Mudslinger (mtn bike)
Table Rock (road)
Chain Breaker (mtn bike)
AIDS/Lifecycle Ride 545 Miles from SF to LA to raise awareness and money to fight the spread and find a cure for HIV/AIDS - This ought to be a lot of fun, its completely supported and should be good and challenging but awesome.

So there ya go, I've got a fitness plan, races to aim for, and fun stuff to do. Bring on the winter.




Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Economization

So by this time, everybody and their belly button lint has heard that the economy is in the toilet and headed towards that swirly watery grave.

How? Why? What the hell is going to happen now?

How: We've all been living on too much credit and not with in our means. That goes for pretty much everybody, and the vast majority of businesses too. At some point it was going to bite us in the ass. It was driven by the large mega-corporations who make shit-tons of money on high interest rates, late fees, over the limit fees, and other assorted fees. These companies target the young, the old, and those at the bottom rung of the socio-economic level. It gets to the point where more money is made on the people defaulting on the loans and credit cards than was made on the people who actually pay their bills. So, you guessed it, they want to make more money. By doing so, more people get into debt that they can never pay off. And these banks and funds get richer. Its not just people living on borrowed money, its everybody, companies big and small, governments big and small. So basically we've built an economy on debt. Not surprisingly enough, its not particularly stable.

So there is your economic less of the week. Pay your bills, your credit card bills off asap, dont get a loan or any other credit that sounds too good to be true, read the fine print, and mostly live within your means. We'll weather the "credit meltdown" it'll be a rough couple of years and then we'll figure out that the only way to fix it is through green businesses, alternative energies, petro-less cars.