Those of you who know me best understand that I have a love for cheese. Not the food based cheese, but the kind of cheese that only Hollywood seems to be able to produce. With the full support of my father, I spent my childhood watching classics like “Death Race 2000” and Anna Nicole Smith’s timeless “Skyscraper“. Watching actors master their craft brings me pleasure. I guess you could say the nude chests and explosions also bring me a special sort of pleasure. I’ve always had a soft spot for visual stimulus that others find annoying and offensive.

It should then surprise no one that Jane and I started watching the new American Gladiators on NBC.com last night. The show brings back special memories of scrawny competitors being pounded in the face with Nerf style weapons by overly large gladiators. Imagine if the IT guy at your work were asked to take on the crew of WWF (WWE or… whatever they are calling it these days) for a small chunk of change. Sure they have steel rods, but they have a soft foam padding covering the end. It is all in good fun. One of the finalists ended up with a bloody forehead after not diving deep enough under the pool of fire. All of it is quite safe.

The gladiators have themes like “Wolf”, who howls before and after events. There is also an islander, Toa, whose shtick involves a goofy dance and some chest thumping. They oil up and flex a lot for the camera.

The most special aspect of the show is the host. Somehow, the producers convinced Hulk Hogan to stop filming the next 3 Ninja’s sequel. He is on American Gladiators now to say “Brother” every other word. He always stands at an angle to the camera so you can see his rippling pythons. Once in a while he tosses up his hand to his ear to get the crowd screaming.

Do yourself a favor, go buy a can of tennis balls and have your friend throw them at you. There isn’t much time left to start your training.

Those of you who know me best understand that I have a love for cheese. Not the food based cheese, but the kind of cheese that only Hollywood seems to be able to produce. With the full support of my father, I spent my childhood watching classics like “Death Race 2000” and Anna Nicole Smith’s timeless “Skyscraper“. Watching actors master their craft brings me pleasure. I guess you could say the nude chests and explosions also bring me a special sort of pleasure. I’ve always had a soft spot for visual stimulus that others find annoying and offensive.

It should then surprise no one that Jane and I started watching the new American Gladiators on NBC.com last night. The show brings back special memories of scrawny competitors being pounded in the face with Nerf style weapons by overly large gladiators. Imagine if the IT guy at your work were asked to take on the crew of WWF (WWE or… whatever they are calling it these days) for a small chunk of change. Sure they have steel rods, but they have a soft foam padding covering the end. It is all in good fun. One of the finalists ended up with a bloody forehead after not diving deep enough under the pool of fire. All of it is quite safe.

The gladiators have themes like “Wolf”, who howls before and after events. There is also an islander, Toa, whose shtick involves a goofy dance and some chest thumping. They oil up and flex a lot for the camera.

The most special aspect of the show is the host. Somehow, the producers convinced Hulk Hogan to stop filming the next 3 Ninja’s sequel. He is on American Gladiators now to say “Brother” every other word. He always stands at an angle to the camera so you can see his rippling pythons. Once in a while he tosses up his hand to his ear to get the crowd screaming.

Do yourself a favor, go buy a can of tennis balls and have your friend throw them at you. There isn’t much time left to start your training.

Those of you who know me best understand that I have a love for cheese. Not the food based cheese, but the kind of cheese that only Hollywood seems to be able to produce. With the full support of my father, I spent my childhood watching classics like “Death Race 2000” and Anna Nicole Smith’s timeless “Skyscraper“. Watching actors master their craft brings me pleasure. I guess you could say the nude chests and explosions also bring me a special sort of pleasure. I’ve always had a soft spot for visual stimulus that others find annoying and offensive.

It should then surprise no one that Jane and I started watching the new American Gladiators on NBC.com last night. The show brings back special memories of scrawny competitors being pounded in the face with Nerf style weapons by overly large gladiators. Imagine if the IT guy at your work were asked to take on the crew of WWF (WWE or… whatever they are calling it these days) for a small chunk of change. Sure they have steel rods, but they have a soft foam padding covering the end. It is all in good fun. One of the finalists ended up with a bloody forehead after not diving deep enough under the pool of fire. All of it is quite safe.

The gladiators have themes like “Wolf”, who howls before and after events. There is also an islander, Toa, whose shtick involves a goofy dance and some chest thumping. They oil up and flex a lot for the camera.

The most special aspect of the show is the host. Somehow, the producers convinced Hulk Hogan to stop filming the next 3 Ninja’s sequel. He is on American Gladiators now to say “Brother” every other word. He always stands at an angle to the camera so you can see his rippling pythons. Once in a while he tosses up his hand to his ear to get the crowd screaming.

Do yourself a favor, go buy a can of tennis balls and have your friend throw them at you. There isn’t much time left to start your training.

Here is a drawing of Norman’s bike that I’ve been working on. It seems like it took forever to draw. I really need to hook up a mouse to the laptop when I work on it…

Saturday Joby and I got up at 7am to ride around Camano Island with a group of SIR members. The weather threatened snow, so I was a bit nervous going into it. It turned out to be a gorgeous (if cold) morning and it is one of my favorite routes to date. Even with the clouds, you could see most of the mountain ranges on all sides.

I got to speak to a few new (to me) members along the way. One guy tried to talk me into signing up for the Cascade 1200k. I tried to explain to him that my legs probably aren’t ready for 800 miles over 4 days when I haven’t even completed an actual event with the group. He wasn’t cutting me any slack though.
“It isn’t until June,” he explained.
“Oh yeah, plenty of time…”

Honestly though, everyone has been extremely nice and talkative. I’m sure it would be easy to dismiss someone a generation younger, in a ninja suit, with tattoos and odd piercings. I appreciate the open arms.

I have one more track on Rock Band’s Hard drum tour. I can tell that I am getting better, but the game is making me work for it.

Norman dropped off his bike for me to “fix” last night. That means that I changed his flat tire. He owns an older (late 70’s/early 80’s I’m guessing) Motobecane. It has stem shifters, 27″ tires, and flat pedals. The bike feels a world away from my Indy Fab. It wasn’t more comfortable. It doesn’t handle better. It needs a damn bath. It isn’t really even a great bike (sorry Norman). It is just different. I had fun relearning how to shift and slowing down a bit to cruise around town. I’m always so in a zone on my commute, and even more focused when training with SIR.

It got me thinking about why it is that I only have one bike for every task. I’d love to have a bike for commuting, a bike for around town, and a touring style rig. The Club Racer has been amazing, don’t get me wrong, but it is nice to adopt a different style once in awhile. Money is always a factor, but I hardly ever look for used bikes. This knows this city is bleeding beautiful bikes that just need a bit of polish.

I wonder what is on Craigslist right now…

“You don’t have water with you?”
“I’ll be fine!”

Joby and I had this exact conversation before the training ride on Saturday. I left my water bottle(s) at home accidently and thought to myself, “It is no big deal. The ride will take a couple of hours and probably wont be any harder than you are used to.” While the ride wasn’t grueling, I could have used some water here and there. The coup de grace was delivered when we took a wrong turn (or two) and ended up adding an extra 10 miles and a couple of hills to the ride.

We started at Sammamish Valley Cycles out in Redmond, rode down south to Carnation, looped back up through Union Hill (where the madness began), and ended up back at the shop. I ended up with a pounding headache and the lack of will to do anything else for the rest of the weekend. To be fair though, I probably would of had that anyways.

I keep talking about getting serious with my on bike eating habits but I haven’t actually done anything about it. Most of my rides are less than an hour and a half, so I’m not tempted to bring food with me. Thursday nights are so beer filled that it would be silly to bring even more calories for my love handles. I need to train my body to eat very healthy on a daily basis (like it is doing now), but be able to pack in the loads of calories that I burn while riding long distances. I will strike a balance, it is just going to take time.

The only day that I rode my bicycle to work this week was also the day that I got sick. On both Monday and Tuesday, I was dressed and ready to leave only to find my back tire flat (on both days). I can change a tire pretty quickly, but the cold weather / already late double whammy told me to just forget about it. Wednesday I went in and felt great until about 9, when a stomach flu hit me like a sack of potatoes. I rode back home early and slept between bathroom breaks. It was a pretty miserable day. Thursday my stomach was still weak so I decided not to chance the commute. I still went in to work, just didn’t put any unnecessary stress on the body. I didn’t even end up making it out on the Thursday night ride due to some obligations. Today I have a meeting right after work on Mercer Island.

Needless to say, I’ve been feeling pretty lazy. It is silly though; this time last year I could barely even get on the bike. I’ve been riding in about 4 out of 5 days on average. There always seems to be some dumb excuse once a week or so. I try to minimize those, but they spring up from time to time.

Saturday is the first SIR training ride. I’ve been doing a few rides “on the side” with some of the members and I am comfortable with where my health is right now. I can’t say enough how happy I am to be in shape and free of any bodily invaders. *high five*

We picked up Norman at his work last night, and he made/bought us grocery bags full of healthy foods to help us out while he is on vacation in Denver. He is a great friend. The pseudo diet we are on is really working out well. I’ve been eating smaller portions and dropping some fatty pounds. I’m not out to lose weight, but I know where I need to gain some strength. The 5 or 10 pounds make a surprising difference up on a 10% grade.

I’ve suddenly come into a run of great work over the last week so I’ve been frantically typing up legal documents with the help of the Graphic Artist’s Guild (the website URL kills me). I haven’t taken the steps to protect my work in the past and now that I’m doing a “real” job, it is time to get serious. It kind of saddens me how easy it is to lose rights to your own work without preventative measures. Expect a new website (not mine, a client’s), and possibly a new logo for another in the not too distant future.

I was going to complain that it has been too cold lately, but that is pretty relative to what I am used to. It is obviously colder than San Diego, and definitely colder than it needs to be, but nothing near what a lot of cities get. Seattle can be pretty soggy, but the temperature stays in a lovely range all year round. It isn’t usually colder than 40, and is rarely warmer than 80. There are exceptions of course, but not too often.

Saturday was spent amongst the nerds at the Science Fiction Museum. We’ve had tickets since last year and it was literally the last day that we would be able to use them. My company’s holiday party was there and I wasn’t able to stay longer than half an hour thanks to a little chemo sickness. A lot of the gear and costumes just prove to me how talented the lighting people are in Hollywood. Most of the stuff looks horribly fake but shows up beautifully on screen. I just don’t retain the same nerd passions I had when I was younger. 10 years ago that museum would be heaven. These days, I am just trying to make sure that we don’t end up with a ticket by staying over our 2 hour limit.

Our friend Erin is leaving for Eugene to help her sister who is about to have a baby. We threw a party for her since it was relatively close to her birthday anyways. We played stupid amounts of Rock Band and enjoyed the company.

This nonsense is kind of all over the map. Sorry. Get off my back. I will post something real with pretty drawings soon’ish.