Keefer Madness

Cold, But Good Training Ride

// September 20th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap

Woke up bright and early this morning so I could drive down to Chapel Hill to do my team’s training ride. At the last moment before, I grabbed my arm warmers to go under my jersey and man am I glad I did. It was 55 when I left the house, and it never really warmed up over the course of the ride or the morning.

It’s always great to ride and train with my team, although it takes a lot more time and planning to get down to Chapel Hill. They’re a good group, and everyone’s friendly and helpful. I did another team’s training ride Thursday night, and it made me that much more appreciative of the team I’m on.

Tri-Cyclists Training Ride – September 20, 2008

Space Shuttle Endeavour Moves To Launch Pad 39B

// September 19th, 2008 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA

I haven’t written a post about NASA’s endeavors (no pun intended) in awhile, but their press release this morning about the Endeavour being moved to 39B caught my attention for a couple of reasons.

Initially, it caught my eye because it’s the first time since July 2001 that two of the fleet’s shuttles have been on the launch pad simultaneously. That should make for some great photo opportunities early this coming week. With the space shuttle hitting retirement in 2010, this should be the last time you will see too shuttles out on the pads at the same time.

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Foxmarks – Sync & Backup Your Firefox Bookmarks

// September 18th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computers, Internet / Web

Man, I’ve been looking for this exact program forever. It’s great – as a Firefox extension, I can use it with Firefox and Flock, syncing bookmarks across all my copies of Firefox at home and work, and have home and work profiles to specify certain links/folders that I don’t want one or the other to have/sync.

I’m so glad Lifehacker featured this the other day. I’m very excited about having my bookmarks all synced between work and home (for free, which is even better). Plus, through Foxmarks’ web site, I can access those bookmarks away from my machines and via my iPhone. This is a great, streamlined way to be able to access your bookmarks wherever, and keep them all in sync.

If you use Firefox in multiple locations or on multiple computers, this is a must have. Even if you only use Firefox on one machine, this is a great way to backup and have your bookmarks accessible on the road. Then again, if you don’t use Firefox, this extension it completely meaningless to you, but why aren’t you using Firefox. Please tell me it’s at least Safari or Chrome you’re using.

Foxmarks

Animator Versus Animated

// September 17th, 2008 // No Comments » // Funny Stuff, Internet / Web

This looks like an update to a really cool little Flash animation cartoon of animator versus animated that uses the Flash’s program timeline, toolbars, etc. as the battlefield/arena for cursor versus cursed.

I love these animated stick figured-type battles on the Web and hope we see more of these, with more elaboration.

Animator VS. Animated

Bummed the Season is Over

// September 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap

Crappy weather here in central North Carolina has brought my cycling season to an uneventful close. Tonight was supposed to be the final race in the Ace Speed Away series. As of last week’s race, I was in a distant second place for the “C” race category, with my teammate, Greg Smith in a very close third place. The race organizers have not posted the official final results, but it’s pretty safe to bet, I’ve got the silver trophy in the 2008 series. Pretty cool!

But, I really wish we had had the chance to go out with a bang tonight. I was hoping to get a medal of any of the three metal types tonight and end the season on a high note. But ironically, the wet rains have signaled the drying up of the race season here in NC, and it’s just a bit depressing. I guess it’s time to take a few days off and start the off-season training regiment.

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5 Great Snacks That Hit The Spot on Long Endurance Rides

// September 16th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Cycling

My RSS reading list has expanded tenfold (at least!) since my first foray of RSS reading back in April of of 2007. I’ve come across a ton of great feeds from Google Reader’s suggestions, stumbling onto cycling blogs, etc.

One cycling-centric blog I love reading is CoachLevi.com. He posts reviews of cycling-related products and today’s is a simple, yet very useful post about in the saddle simple snacks. The graham cracker/peanut butter deal sounds like an easy and yummy snack I’ve gotta try! The jerky sounds good too. Man, I’m hungry now.

He makes a great point about the premium charged for all our cycling snacks. I do love my Vanilla Bean Gu’s though.

5 Great Snacks That Hit The Spot on Long Endurance Rides

Question to Keefer Madness Readers

// September 16th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Keefer Madness

So all you loyal Keefer Madness readers, and all of those of you who are stumbling upon Keefer Madness, from my Google Analytics, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what content people are coming to the site for, but wanted to also get some personal input. If you have a couple minutes, please leave a comment on what information you’re enjoying seeing on here.

Google Analytics shows a lot of you are coming here for my local cycling criterium writeups, etc. but the people that actually reading, subscribing to my RSS, etc., what keeps you coming back and reading?

Wake Forest Cat5 Criterium Race Report

// September 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap

Yesterday morning probably marked the end of the regular criterium racing for 2008 for me (save the final in the Ace Speedway series tomorrow night – hopefully where I’ll be getting my silver series trophy) and it was nice to have a short drive for it down NC Highway 98 to historic downtown Wake Forest for its inaugural downtown criterium. The Cat5 race had the first race of the day at a bright and early 8am.

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Same Time, Every Day

// September 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling, Funny Stuff

I should be writing up a race report about this morning’s Wake Forest Criterium race, but I’m beat and don’t have time for a long posting tonight. In the meantime, in other related cycling news, today’s Yahuda Moon strip hits close to home – his commuting superstitions not unlike my own. Hell, last week’s Wednesday night bike commute was not only subject to more traffic, but also a flat tire. Coincidence, I think so. Superstitions anyway, hell yeah!

Same Time, Every Day

Boue's Big Day

// September 13th, 2008 // No Comments » // Funny Stuff

Jef sent me this time lapse video of a dog’s eventful day. Amanda and I would love to have a video of this for Bongo’s typical weekday: