Published on Thursday, July 28th, 2005 .
So it looks like the PSP has just become a little more enticing… Apparently they’ve released a new software version that adds a web browser…. really neato because it already had wi-fi capability but no browser. To me, that didn’t make any sense. Why make an internet-enabled device only to not let it browse the web? I understand that the initial purpose of adding wi-fi to the device was so you could play games over the internet against other people, BUT the fact that it had several nice multimedia features (mp3’s, movie files off memory cards, movies on UMD discs, etc.) put it more in the category of a convergence device. Sony obviously realized that leaving out at least a basic functionality web browser was a faux pas since they’ve just released the new software update. As of now, it seems to be a pretty sweet device. Throw it in your backpack, run down to your local starbucks, sit around sipping coffee and playing games against other people via wifi.. then surf the web a little. Head over to a friend’s house and play some games and surf the web some too… Pretty neat if you ask me. The PSP also works fairly nicely as an mp3 player and movie viewer (you can buy movie discs at Target and other places from what I’ve seen), plus you can encode movies yourself and copy them to your MemoryStick ProDuo and watch them on your PSP as well. All this for about half the price of a really nice PDA. Admittedly the PDA has more functionality, but it’s all about what you actually need and use. Anyway, here’s a couple of pics courtesy of Kyle over at HardOCP
Published on Thursday, July 28th, 2005 .
Well, as of the end of July 27th, I’m sitting at 863 miles for the month. 137 more to go for 1000 for the month. I’m not totally sure I’ll manage to hit it as I have the 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st left to ride. Four days, 137 miles = 34.25 miles per day provided I don’t take any days off from riding. First off, I’m not sure I want to do 35 miles a day everyday for the next 4 days given that I’ve already been doing about 35 miles a day everyday this week. I mean, on one hand I want to say I’ve done 1k miles in a month but on the other hand I don’t want to kill myself and/or burn myself out. If I do the group ride on Friday like I usually do then that’ll be at least 45 miles so the other days I won’t have to do 35 EVERY day. Problem is, I may end up having to work over a couple of hours so I might not be able to do the group ride. I’m not totally sure at the moment and I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. Also, I don’t work either Fri or Sat so making myself do 35 miles when I could be sitting at home slamming shots of jager and listening to loud music is a chore in and of itself. Either way, 1000 miles or not, I’ve enjoyed this month probably more than any other month of riding that I can remember. 1369 miles on the bike so far (including most of last month) and I’ve had 1 flat tire, a creak in the bottom bracket (needed pulled and lubed/loctited), a sticky pawl in the rear freehub (pulled apart and re-lubed) and one wheel truing that wasn’t entirely necessary but I had done because I’m anal like that. Overall, I can’t say I’m displeased given how much rain I rode in during the month of June. I’m still looking at getting another bike to use as a commuter with fenders, rack and panniers. Riding my road bike as a commuter is a lot like driving a Porsche to and from work and to get groceries…. lots of fun, but hardly practical.
Speaking of being a bicycle commuter, I must say I really enjoy people’s reactions when I tell them that I don’t own a car and commute via bicycle. Apparently it comes as a complete shock to most people. So much of a shock that people think I’m fucking with them when I tell them such. If I had a dollar for everytime someone responded with “you’re shitting me/fucking with me” I’d be a pretty rich motherfucker right about now. I guess people are so used to owning a car and it’s become so much of a social expectation that you own a car that when someone “goes against the grain” it comes as quite the shock. People also feel the need to tell me that I “need a car”. To which I respond “why?” I mean, I can do everything that I need to do on a bicycle just fine. A car would provide virtually no advantage over my bicycles. Well ok, it would get me places faster and I’d be able to take girls out on dates (read: drive them around so they can look pretty in the passenger seat of their boyfriend’s nice car… something I could give a shit less about). When I get a rack & panniers I’ll be able to haul stuff (groceries, etc.) around just as well as I would if I had a car. People ask what I do when it rains. Well, I ride! duh… Last I remember, humans don’t melt or suffer any ill effects from getting wet. What do I do when it gets cold? Bundle up and ride. Big deal, I’m cold for 15 minutes then my body starts generating heat and I’m sweating by the time I get home. We don’t really get snow here, so that’s not much of an issue. However, a bicycle actually gets around better than a car does in really wicked weather conditions, provided it’s equipped with the right tires (and probably fenders, too). Ok, so maybe I’m certifiably insane…. who cares? I enjoy the shit out of bicycle commuting and I don’t see why it’s such a big deal to people that I don’t own a car. I don’t go around telling people who drive cars that they should give up their cars and start bicycling! Thus, people who own cars shouldn’t waste their breath telling me that I need to get a car. I’ll keep my $5000 a year and spend it on other stuff that actually makes me happy rather than just pissing it away keeping a 3000lb hunk of metal running. I’ll continue to combine my daily exercise with my daily transportation instead of burning $30 a month for a stupid fucking fitness club membership. Thanks, but no thanks… Enjoy your cars and I’ll enjoy my bike. When we’re 40, we’ll see who has the beer gut and numerous health problems.
Published on Saturday, July 23rd, 2005 .
My friend Steve and I went out to Bailey’s last night and I realized how much I miss going there. I had tons of fun, shot some pool, had a few drinks but didn’t get drunk. Overall a good time. We played for just over 2 hrs and I got my ass handed to me for the most part. Then again, I really suck at pool so that’s no shock. I still had fun, though. I did win a few games but they were few and far between. I had 2 Long Beach Teas, a Long Island Tea and some chicken fingers. Their food is hella good but also wicked expensive. $7.75 for some chicken fingers, fries and slaw. Oh well… I had a great time so it was worth it. The DJ even played some pretty good music… lots of old school late 80’s & early-mid-90’s stuff.
Friday I also managed to put in about 47 miles….. got off work at 8am, rode to Anchor Park, rode with the group and then came home. I took the bus home because my knee was sore. 
We rode around in Farragut and Lenoir City. Lots of fun and a really cool route except that I wasn’t paying that much attention and couldn’t ride it again if I had to.
Published on Monday, July 18th, 2005 .
Yeah, I’m a slacker.. haven’t updated in awhile. So here’s the quick round-up… Friday night my friends and I decided to get together and find something to do. Originally we were just gonna sit around and drink a little bit, but I didn’t really feel like just sitting around so we decided to go to the strip club. We would have been able to take the liquor inside with us had we gotten there before 1am, but we got there about 1:10 and that was after liquor curfew. We still ended up having a bunch of fun, though. It started out as just me, Sam and Dwight… but then Sam’s friend Ty decided to come along.. then their friend Mike decided to come along as well so we ended up with 5 of us. When we got there, Dwight’s friend Chip showed up as well but he didn’t sit with us or anything. I ended up buying a table dance from a really hot blonde chick and a lap dance from another really hot blonde. The amusing part about the lap dance was the fact that the girl didn’t even remotely look like she was enjoying herself. She was actually carrying on a conversation with the girl giving a lap dance next to us. Needless to say, a huge turn-off. I paid her but didn’t tip her for the dance because frankly, it sucked. I still had fun and all, I just would have liked the chick that gave me the lap dance to be a little more into what she was doing.
Saturday night we actually decided to get together and drink. I ended up having 4 Nazi Cokes and getting really trashed and passing out on the couch. Nothing much interesting happened that I remember, but I do know we had a fair bit of fun. It was basically the same people as Friday night but this time Adam joined us as well. We ended up drinking 3/4 of a 1.75L bottle of Bacardi rum, most of a fifth of jager and most of a fifth of Ice 101. I think there was beer, too. Oh, and weed…. and guns, too (sam owns two)! I woke up Sunday afternoon and went uptsairs and saw all the stuff on the kitchen table and thought to myself “wow, I guess we had fun last night!” Then I had to work 16 hrs on Sunday night from 4pm til 8am on Monday morning. Nothing else of interst went on all weekend.. but I’d say that was plenty. I’m really enjoying having weekends off. 
Published on Friday, July 15th, 2005 .
I did another group ride today and ended up with 43 miles as of right now. I don’t think I’ll be riding much more (if any) tonight, though. About 18 of those miles was riding back & forth to and from the start point along with riding to get my check cashed and to get some food… At this rate, I should hit 1000 miles tomorrow. I have no idea how quickly I hit 1000 miles on my MTB since for the first few months I didn’t even have a speedometer on it. I do know that once I got it, it took me a few months to hit 1000. I’m under 2 months to 1000 miles on this bike. Then again, I’ve been riding it a LOT more. I enjoy riding it a lot more and I’m also just a better rider than I was 6 months ago. It’d be cool to actually get 1000 miles in a month this month. I didn’t think I could do it, but I’m actually doing quite well towards that goal. We’ll see how it pans out, but if I don’t make it I won’t be pissed. My goal for this month was 750-800 so anything over that will be just gravy.
Also, I decided to eat at Wendy’s today. They keep getting more and more expensive! Their combos used to come with a biggie sized fry normally and biggie sizing the combo got you a GREAT Biggie. Not anymore! Now you get a medium by default and biggie sizing gives you a biggie. It’s like another $0.50 to upsize to great biggie. That means my triple cheese combo is damn near $8 now! Ridiculous…. for fast food, no less. If only their burgers didn’t taste so damned good. Not to mention it’s the only fast food place I can eat and be stuffed. C’est la vie! I could go to Gus’s Good Times Deli and get a ton more food for only a couple bucks more, though.
Published on Thursday, July 14th, 2005 .
I’m getting ever closer to 1000 miles on the new bike.. 913 miles as of today and 407.85 this month so far (31.3 miles per day). If I keep up the 30+ miles per day average I’ll actually hit 1000 miles in a month for the first time in forever. Granted I just started riding again for the first time in a few years this past October or so, but still… 1000 miles in a month is quite a bit for a bicycle. The only gay part about my bike is that if I ride it for long periods of time, my right elbow starts to hurt when I bend it. I don’t know exactly what’s causing it, but I hate it. I think part of it is the fact that the bike is a bit too big. That’s about all I can come up with.
As it stands, I’m debating working on getting another bike more suited to commuter duties. Commuting on my road bike is much like driving a Porsche 911 Turbo to get groceries. It’s not really practical. I can’t put a rack, panniers or fenders on it at all. I’m looking at a few bikes that can accomodate such things and they’re varying from $700-1500. My only problem is the one that I really really want is $1500, however I don’t really NEED such a bike. The lower-end ones would do perfectly fine. However, the $1500 one is just so damned nice! Hydraulic disc brakes, carbon fiber fork, seatstays, seatpost and handlebars. Armadillo tires… rack & fender mounts. Yummy stuff! Granted, I don’t really NEED the bike, but it’d be great to have. Lighter and faster than my MTB, more versatile than my road bike. I’d still use the road bike for just getting out and riding around and riding with the club and stuff. I’d just use the “city bike” for commuting to and from work, going to the store, etc. Stick a rear rack and some nice Ortlieb panniers on it and I’d be all set. The nice thing would be that I could load up the panniers with some clothes and other stuff and just take a ride somewhere 100 miles away, stay the night, change clothes, come back. Basically short touring. Yup, I’m officially a bike geek. I have about $3700 in bike stuff as it stands (maybe more if you count clothes and other gear) and don’t even hesitate to think about spending another $1500! I wonder if there’s something like AA for bike geeks?
Published on Monday, July 11th, 2005 .
Friday and Saturday, I did group rides with the local bike club and had tons of fun. Friday was 38 miles and Saturday was about 35 miles, both days averaged about 17.5mph. The amazing thing about the whole deal was the fact that I was the only person in either group that was under 40 yrs old. As a matter of fact, on Friday’s ride two of the guys I finished with were 60+! That’s just amazing that these guys are in such great shape at that age. I seriously hope I can do that when I’m that age. Friday’s fast group was me, two 60+ year olds and a guy who looked to be late 40’s or early 50’s. Saturday’s lead group was me, those same two 60 year olds and a guy who was probably in his late 30’s or early 40’s named Whirly. Both rides made my legs burn like never before. I was pushing pretty damned hard to keep up with them, but I had a great time both days. Needless to say, I’ll be riding with them more often now. Riding by myself is fun, just not quite as fun as riding with other people. I don’t push as hard when I ride solo either. I go slower, stop more often and don’t ride quite as far as I do when I’m with the group. There’s a ride going on Tuesday that I might try and make it to. The only problem is waking up early enough to meet up with the guy to ride with to Melton Hill Dam. It’s a few of the same people I rode with on Saturday and the ride is at a slower pace than I rode at on Saturday, but it should still be fun. 15-16mph is hardly a “slow” ride, after all.
Published on Thursday, July 7th, 2005 .
My new schedule absolutely rules. Let’s see, I go in at midnight and stay til 8am. I get home whenever I want, go to bed whenever and still get up in enough time to ride to work. Hell, half the time I get up early enough to get in 30 miles before I have to be at work. Talk about kickass. Not only that, I get weekends off! Sucks that this weekend I’m broke so I can’t really go out and do anything but that’s ok. This coming Sunday I’m covering someone’s 4pm-midnight shift and then working my normal midnight-8am shift, so I’ll be working a double and no doubt be tired as shit. It’s worth the extra money, though. Same deal next Sunday, too. Oddly, I don’t really mind working 16 hrs. It’s tiring, yes, but my job isn’t all that difficult so it’s not as bad as working 16 hrs at McDonald’s or some such shit.
On another note, I added some new pics to my image gallery in the “funny” section. Click the gallery link on the left-hand side and you’ll see… Here’s an example of one of them 
Click here to view
Apparently there’s this comic strip done by this one dude called “Morning Glory”. I actually found his site with all of them listed, looked at them all and literally was laughing my ass off. Amusing shit, but oh so very wrong.
Published on Tuesday, July 5th, 2005 .
Yep… fireworks show was really good as usual. Somehow Knoxville manages to put on a pretty bitchin fireworks show for the 4th of July and Labor Day (known as “Boomsday”). I rode down to the World’s Fair Park and was rudely greeted by a pig, oops, I mean a cop, who said no bikes allowed in the park… what the fuck? Of course I did manage to FORGET my fucking lock at home! So I ride back home, get my lock, ride back to the park and go in one of the other entrances where a police officer is sitting outside his car. I ask him the best place to lock up since we’re not supposed to have bikes down there and he says that in fact bikes are allowed and that plenty of other people have them. Obviously the first cop was a fucking douchebag who didn’t know jack shit. So I hung out down there for a few hours riding around and such, admiring the “scenery”. I was going to eat down there but all the lines for the food places were 20-30 minutes long at least and I sure as fuck didn’t feel like waiting so I just went to Wendy’s and ate. Came back, rode around for a bit more and then watched the fireworks, which lasted about 15-20 mins tops. It’s a little after 10pm at this point so I figure I’ll just head on to work. Traffic on the strip was backed up out the ass so instead of waiting along with them, I just jumped into the center of the two lanes and split traffic @ almost 35mph, passing cars like crazy. Talk about fun shit! I even managed to catch all the green lights, too. All told, it ended up being just under 40 miles on the day not including whatever miles I rode around down at the World’s Fair Park. I actually took my speedometer off for that time period since I wasn’t going very fast anyway.
Speaking of riding, I found out that our local bike club (smoky mountain wheelmen) has quite a few group rides that they do on various days of the week. Well, there’s a decent looking ride that leaves at 9am on Friday mornings, which works out to be right after I get off work. The start point is about 7 miles from work, which I can make in under 30 minutes. That means I’d have time for breakfast and then just ride down to the start point, meet up with them, put in 20-30 miles and then just go crash at my friend’s house… or ride home if I’m feeling up to it. I emailed the ride leader with various questions; hopefully she’ll get back to me before this week’s ride. I haven’t ridden with any groups yet, but I’d really like to. Seems like it’d be a lot of fun… Riding solo is starting to get kinda boring, to say the least.
Published on Monday, July 4th, 2005 .
Yep, Knoxville is apparently having some sort of festivities at the old World’s Fair Park. Live bands, food, fireworks, etc. I have to be at work at midnight, so I’m gonna go down there for a few and see if it’s worth my time. If not, I’ll just go riding for a few hours and then go to work. I’m loving this new schedule already. I got off work at 8am today, went to McDonald’s for breakfast, rode 16.5 miles at just under a 16mph average speed, then came home and passed out. I still woke up in plenty of time to go out and do shit if I please. It’s great. Plus I’ll have weekends off so I’ll actually be able to go out and do things with my friends. Fun shit!
