Culture and Process

Just a quick update while I'm making maple syrup (I'll detail that one later, or you can click over to mega for the 411)-

I came across two blog postings this week that I just have to share. The first is from Molly Cameron- she posted a great video promo for the Ronde:

The history and culture of bike racing in Europe sends chills down my spine sometimes..

The second posting is from BKW- a quick photo tutorial from the Tour of California on on gluing tubular tires. Having been a bike racer for almost 30 years now, and being hopelessly devoted to 'cross I just love tubulars. And while some people complain about the process of gluing, I actually find it cool.

Yeah, I know I'm a dork...

Bonus!!

Being part of the working staff at bike races means the organizers often provide you with some kind of meal during the day. While this usually works well for most people, being vegan throws a bit of a wrench in the works. What ends up happening is you wind up with a lot of cheese-less Subway veggie sandwiches, a.k.a. "salad on a roll". Not the most appetizing thing in the world. But over the years I've learned to pack my own lunch, so things tend to work out.
The bonus part of being on the staff is that at the end of the day you sometimes get the leftover Clif samples, or extra Vitamin Water , Red Bull etc. Or if you are really lucky J-Pows comes to the race and brings you a whole bag of Jelly Bellys.... There really is nothing like free food at the end of a hard day..
But race season is still a few weeks away, so I wasn't thinking about the bonus food thing yet. However during last weeks Computrainer session I was having that "what's your favorite food" conversation with the rider next to me and we got on the subject of tempeh- one of my fav foods. We talked a bit about tempeh vs tofu vs seitan and then wandered onto the much more important topic of desert. Lo and behold, a week later he shows up at Computrainer class with an armload of tempeh! Turns out he was working at the Lightlife factory (which is only a few miles away) and was asking the guys about tempeh, so they hooked him up with a bunch- and he brought some to me! Bonus!!

Preseason Brain Training

Since it's still early in the year, and the road trips haven't started yet (38 days to go), I'm spending a lot of time in the "home office". What that really means is spending a lot of time watching podcasts, reading blogs, and generally wasting time. When I'm not downstairs working on my Wii fitness that is...
So in an effort to at least make these distractions productive I've switched gears on the old internets. Instead watching/listening to people thrash over same old cycling stuff (doping, tubular vs clincher, should the cross season extend into January) I'm trying to branch out and indulge my other interests and trying to learn about stuff that I don't understand.
Right now that's tech stuff- anything from network security to general gadgets and hacking. Good old geek stuff. I'm thoroughly enjoying all the cool things that Leo Laporte does- TWiT, Security Now, etc.
From Leo's page I've been following links to all kind of other cool blogs, podcasts and yet more links and links. It's kind of like back in the day when you would find a cool album and you would read the liner notes to find out what bands that band was into etc. Like I said, geeky.
The other thing I've managed to get myself hooked on are TED talks. Man is there a whole ton of cool podcast/videos in there. So much of it I've either never heard of, or don't understand, but watching the talks I've yet to find one where I didn't get at least something out of it. Who knew that I could spend 20 minutes watching a video about a telescope?
So if your bored with the same old list serve flame wars and need something new, just pick something that you want to know more about and type it into Google. After all- a little variety is good for you!