Keefer Madness

Very Little Going on Today

// July 13th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap

I’ve got very little to write tonight, as we didn’t really do much today, and I was absolutely fine with that. We slept in, which for us means 8:30/9:00am. We got up, watched some TiVo and then went out to lunch with our friend Tania at Carraba’s for a belated birthday lunch. We gorged there and I haven’t wanted to look at food since. I still don’t even have a twinkling of hunger.

The only real hunger has come in the form of two-wheeled action. My two bike races this week have left me hungry for more races. I’ll be scouring the bike sites for places to enter soon. I know Ace Speedway just north of Burlington, NC will see me again next Tuesday. I’m also planning to try to reduce my commute time in with a faster pace if at all possible to accelerate fitness and training.

The only other thing that happened worth mentioning is we continued to let Bongo roam the downstairs while we were out. Two trips today – lunch and a later trip to the grocery store both found Bongo napping on the love seat upon our return. He definitely seems happier, more content and calmer than being caged up all day!

First Road Race in the Bag

// July 12th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap

Well I’ve arrived back home from my first road race – The Piedmont Triad Omnium Road Race starting and ending out of Davidson Community College outside of Thomasville. So up until this point, I’ve only raced in criteriums, and a single time trial. This morning I added a road race, and it won’t be my last.

The Cat4 guys rolled out at 8:00am. We started right behind them at 8:05am. The course was nice, with an 11.6 loop we did three times. The start/finish was 3 miles off this loop. So the officials and police rolled us out with a neutral start down to the loop. I am not sure of the exact size of the field, but it’s the largest I’ve ever raced in to date. We only had half the roadway at any given time, and we were all bunched in like sardines.

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First Road Race Tomorrow Morning

// July 11th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap

So just 12 hours from now, I’ll be in the middle of my first road race. I’ve done my share of criteriums and have tackled a time trial as well. A road race is kind of like if you took one of the big big races (Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Tour of California, etc.) and did only a single day’s stage, albeit shorter and slower than the ProTour teams.

The team kit is clean (third time washed this week) and drying for tomorrow’s race. I go from not racing at all throughout June to now two races in less than a week! Anyway, be thinking of be tomorrow morning. The race commences at 8:05am in Thomasville, NC. Race report and photos to follow.

In an Iranian Image, a Missile Too Many

// July 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computers, Design, News

So here’s another example of Photoshopping hitting big media. Notice how the two middle missiles are almost completely identical, save a single black dot on the middle right one. Even more noticeable is the exact pattern in the smoke in the middle and right.

Some of the comments after the article and photos suggests it may have been done for composition purposes. I think the unaltered picture shows it was to paint a better/more successful launch than reality where it was visible that one rocket failed to launch from the mobile launch vehicle.

Propaganda comes in many shapes, forms and versions of subtly.

In an Iranian Image, a Missile Too Many

iTunes 7.7 Released, Prepping for iPhone/iPod Touch 2.0 Software

// July 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Apple

Alright fellow iPhone and iPod Touch owners – today is our day. iTunes 7.7 has been released early this morning and with it, access to the Applications Store which has 500+ apps, 25% of them are completely free! I’ve already downloaded four of the freebies at home, and am sifting through the deeper areas to look for more.

As of the writing of this post, the other half of making the apps work has yet to be released – the 2.0 firmware/software for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The assumption is that is it will be released later today. My prediction is around 9am PST when Apple employees have all rolled into the office.

Anyway, this gives us a single day’s jump on iPhone 3G owners who can start buying their phones tomorrow morning. Since the 2.0 software wasn’t released by the time I left the house this morning, I’ll have to wait till tonight for the software upgrade and application installation. I’m really looking forward to playing with the iTunes Remote later on tonight. I’m also interested to see how apps like AOL’s IM client compare to web-based clients already out.

Rock Band 2 Hands-On

// July 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Gaming, Music

So it sounds like Rock Band 2 is going to build onto the super-smooth and successful original. I love the fact that they’re adding a battle of the bands mode and that the world tour mode will go to Xbox Live. This next round of music games should have even better set lists as more and more bands realize the popularity and revenue stream potential of these games. Sign me up for a copy upon release (sans the instruments):

Rock Band 2 Hands-On

My First Ace Race

// July 8th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap

Select Tuesday nights, a 0.5 km oval racetrack 8 miles north of Burlington, North Carolina gets overtaken by cyclists hammering in USCF races. This was my first foray into racing at Ace Speedway and first in general racing on an oval.

Amanda thought the all out endurance-based profile of the race would be well suited. I wasn’t so sure. My category “C” race started at 6:15. Well, it was scheduled to start at 6:15. I think it ended up like 6:30 or later till we were actually lined up at the start line. Our race consisted of 9 racers, including myself and another teammate, who was also out on the oval for the first time as well.

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Guest Bathroom Project – Day 1

// July 7th, 2008 // No Comments » // Home Projects

So we decided to take a few days off after the 4th of July Holiday to make it an extended holiday. It’s been a very productive 4 days thus far and I during this time we’ve gotten lots done. Inspired by the success of my couch project, today I decided to start my “Plank” project in the guest bathroom upstairs. So here’s where I am at day 1. On the left is the before picture of the guest bathroom.

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Do the Tour de France with Google Maps' Street View

// July 6th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling

So with the Tour de France 2008 underway now, Google has a a cool way to follow the 2008 route of the Tour. Google Maps introduced the Street View zoom this past year and using it to highlight the Tour de France. Pretty cool!

Do the Tour de France with Google Maps’ Street View

Productive Day

// July 5th, 2008 // No Comments » // General Posts

So with the long and extended weekend, Amanda and I wanted to relax, but also created a list of things to get done around the house – cleaning, etc. Today was the day we blitzed that list so that the next three days we have off will be very relaxing and devoid of chores. Tonight, we’re doing a date night – dinner and a movie at Brier Creek.

Tomorrow, I don’t think much is planned, and with the possibility of thunderstorms, I’m not even sure I’ll get any outdoor bike training in. I might be glued to the trainer watching the Tour de France instead. Despite Amanda’s protests, I see a lot of GTA IV and Rock Band in the coming days as well.