Working On the Treo

Ok, disassemble some treo phone this morning to swap multiple part from one to another.

I swapped out the casing, the antenna, keyboard and it's internal plate, and the battery.

Now the phone works like new, not that I would know how a new one works since mine are all hand me downs.

I also ordered a replacement screen for the broken treo 650. When that arrives I'll switch to that phone and have a backup.

[Posted with a Treo 600 & hblogger 2.0 by Tony]

MNF, Thanks for the Memories

36 years! Ever since I can remember watching football, we watched Monday Night Football on ABC.

Nearing Retirement...

Erik Zabel is one of the great sprinters of this era in cycling. He managed to win 6 Green jerseys at the Tour de France amongst many other victories. But this past year, T-Mobile left him off the squad to focus on helping Jan Ulrich attempt the win. As we know, it didn't work out, but Jan did manage to make the podium.

Being left off the TdF squad was more than Zabel really could stand after riding in nearly each TdF since he joined T-Mobile in 1993. Today, CyclingNews.com had a little blurb on Zabel and one portion of it caught my eye. I've quoted the section below.

At 35 years old, Zabel said, "I don't feel at all old - just like my colleagues, I'm interested in DVDs, I-Pods, ring tones and such things. But when I look at the birth years of the riders and see that someone was born in 1985, I think to myself: 1985? He was still in diapers when I had my first motor scooter!"

This is exactly how I feel, but lucky for me 35 isn't quite the end of the road for a computer support and admin guy.

Currently watching HollenTour.

A Quote From Mother Teresa

"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered, Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway"

Mother Teresa.

Everyone is Getting This for Xmas...

http://www.heifer.org/

The gift that keeps on giving. Just watch your step.

Ok, I'm trying to be funny, but in all seriousness, I heard about this program on the ole' public radio and thought it was a great idea. Especially when I heard about goats and how some families had started little farms with just a few. The farms would eventually grow because the goats reproduce more quickly then they die and the families can support themselves with the extra product.

My friend, Ron, he had a goat, I think I'll ask him about it.

Daily Life Stuff

Rain is good weather for fires. Sunday it was raining which meant a trip with the wheelbarrow over to the wood storage area in the breeze way. I filled the thing pretty good. You can't really tell in the picture, but the front tire is halfway flat, so the moment I shifted the weight forward, I was nearly on the rim. There is a little ding in the rim that causes the tire to flat after a few days. I'm not fixing it since it's old and right now I'm just to lazy to fill the thing up. It'll have to wait until summer when I might use the thing more. Riiiiigggghhhht!

Back to the fire. I made it and it was big. Now that's a fire! For about 30 minutes, Velo the cat and I enjoyed the warmth before I went to spin some squares for a while.

Oh and because it's raining the creek in the yard is up and running pretty good. Not anywhere as high as I've seen it before, but just above normal. The water was a funny color, almost like a milky color.

It's raining today. It's fire weather!

Wellens disqualified after hitting spectator

I suspected this might happen, instant replay used for cycling event. No, just kidding. But a review of the cyclocross race in Belgium, where Bart Wellens karate-kicked a belligerent spectator, found Wellens DQ'ed. Doubt anything happened to the fan other than finding himself the laughing stock of his buddies. Oh yeah, and now he has muddy cleat marks on his chest for the effort too. Read more below...



As reported at CyclingNews.com

Wellens disqualified after hitting spectator
After an altercation with a spectator at Sunday's Vlaamse Druivenveldrit in Overijse, Belgium, Bart Wellens has been disqualified following a meeting of the UCI and the three race commissaires. Wellens won the race, and although it appeared he may have been disqualified on the day, was allowed to keep the win.

But after examination of the case it was decided that Wellens' actions, although prompted by the insults of a spectator constituted an offence strong enough to lead to his disqualification. He may also be fined after a meeting of the Disciplinary Commission decides whether the incident warrants a financial penalty.

Rocha Makes Newspaper

There aren't many of us out there and even though this person isn't realated to my Rocha family, it's nice when a Rocha makes. I happened upon this story in the Chico Enterprise Record, which was published on Saturday 18. The article asks if you ever wonder how the Skyway came to be known as the Skyway?

Well, you can read the story here, or just read my little segment.

A contest was held in 1942 to name the road connecting Chico and Paradise, and Marilyn Rocha, a Chico State College student, entered it. Rocha's winning idea, the Skyway, brought her a prize of a $50 gift certificate to Oser's, which she used to buy her wedding dress.

When Heckling Turns to assault...

Hey batter batter batter! Hey Shaq, you can't make a free throw to save your life!

Now, the above phrases are acceptable but what is not acceptable is when fans become drunk and belligerent and begin using too many profanity as well as throwing objects at athletes.

There are numerous examples of incidents like this occurring. Let me list a few:

Fan Hits Jason Giambi with beer.
Detroit Vs. Indiana Vs. Fans
Umpire Laz Diaz was attacked by a fan
Royals first base coach assaulted by father-son duo

I'm sure I could go on. But the one that really caught my attention and prompted me to write this post had to do with cycling fans. I'm not talking about the German fans on Alpe D'Huez who spat on Lance Armstrong as he made his way up the famous climb in the Tour de France or the fan who punched Eddy Merckx which eventually caused him to lose his lead in the 1975 Tour de France, but an incident which occurred in Belgium at one of the biggest cyclocross races of the year. This incident is most like the one in Detroit where after repeated insults and object thrown, the athlete strikes back.

"For four laps, I had mud and beer thrown at me," Wellens told Belgian Cyclo-cross.info. "The fifth time it was just too much for me. I didn't really intend to hit him, and I regret what I've done, but I think that as a rider I don't have to put up with everything."

So, where is the line to be drawn? Verbal insults? Flying objects? Where ever, I believe Bart Wellen's put it correctly, "I don't have to put up with everything."

Fans have the right to cheer on their favorites and boo those they dislike. Profanity may even be ok and tolerable, but when fans lower themselves to the point of throwing things at athletes, something needs to be done.

Obviously, barricades and security at basketball and baseball games haven't deterred all the crazy fans, so I'm not sure what can be done at cycling events. But as a fan, you need to be able to control yourself, or face going to jail in my opinion.

Milram Trouble Already...

The newly formed Italo-German professional cycling team, Milram, headed by top sprinters Erik Zabel and Alessandro Petacchi, could already be feeling the pains of attempting to meet needs of both.

As reported yesterday in CyclingNews.com.

After the route for the 2006 Giro was announced, Petacchi declared the race "too hard" for sprinters and indicated that he might instead ride the Tour de France. This announcement was heard uneasily within the team, which had assumed that Petacchi would ride the Giro and his teammate Erik Zabel would ride the Tour.

One of the main reasons Zabel, six-time winner of the sprinters' green jersey at the TdF, left T-Mobile was their lack of support for him in the 2005 TdF. So, for Petacchi to announce he might not ride the Giro in favor of the Tour probably didn't sit well with Zabel.

We'll have to see what happens as Petacchi hasn't ruled out the Giro, yet.

Made an Apple Pie

We broke out some frozen thanksgiving leftovers and it just didn't seem right without the apple pie. My wife made the crust while I sliced the apples. we made a little extra crust to add to the edge because we like crust. More crust = Good! The extra crust also held in the leftover apple juice from seasoning the apples, which I poured on top. As well, you might notice the large chunk of butter on top. Added favor carrier. Look at that, you can't even see the pie dish under the crust. Impressive.

Of course, we robbed the pie of it's crust once it was cool enough to touch. That poor pie looks like a bomb landed on it. I then proceeded to chomp down a quart of it resulting in a terrible sugar low this morning. I hate that sick feeling. But that can be fixed with another serving of pie. Hair of the dog, eh?

Time for me to get friendly with the stationary bike trainer and watch some football. Might have to do some situps and stuff too after that pie.

Hey, on a bright note, the forecast for my home gym is a balmy 65 degrees.

45 My Butt

It never got anyhwere near 45 degrees today. It was more like 38, even when I left at 11 to ride. I should have left earlier and just faced the cold. Instead I rode for 45 minutes and then got rained on. Yeah, real nice, 38 and rain.

I came home, took a hot shower, made a fire and worked out a little more inside. Not what I had planned for really.

The rain is here.... for a while.

It's Cold

Which has allowed for me to do laundry, wash dishes, clean the kitchen, feed the cats, water the inside plants, and even transfer photos from my camera to the computer. But when I went to upload them to Flickr I got a message that they were doing hard drive installs over there for two hours starting at 8 AM PST, and I tried at 8:10. Oh well.

So, rather than point you over to Flickr, which I'll do later, I'll post a couple of pics here in the blog, directly!

This pic is of our little office party down at the Regional Cancer Registry, oh, can't forget there are two other programs in our office as well; 5 A Day folks and Breast Cancer Early Detection folks.

I guess I'll have to go grocery shopping and do a few more chores before the temperature hits a whopping 45 or so and then it should be time for a ride. I need to get out there before the rain starts this afternoon. Which reminds me, have to take the chain out of the degreaser and put it back on the bike or else I'll be going no where fast.

This last image is of me being very suspicious of the cold weather I'm about to endure. Or maybe I'm a little upset about it not being 60. Isn't that what a California winter is all about... 60 and sunny! Come on Mother Nature, where's the love?

Folsom Inmates Reburb Bikes For Christmas

Inmates at Folsom prison were hard at work over the holiday season refurbishing bicycles that will be given to dozens of children via the Toys For Tots program.

Funny, normally I don't follow the trail all the way back to the source but I did with this article. The trail wasn't long, actually only one hop. I have KCRA.com RSS feed into MyYahoo! page. Quality! So, I was reading over at Fixgear's blog about the dilemma of citing sources while blogging. So, again, let me attempt to get to what I intend to tell you. Sure enough, look what I found at the bottom of the KCRA article.

Copyright 2005 by KCRA.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Good God, I wonder if mentioning it here might touch on any of those items? The font was so small I had to squint to read it, but gave up and pasted it into the blog, ta-da! Anyway...

Here is the link to the original source, picture is theirs too:
http://www.kcra.com/holidays/5557413/detail.html#


Oh yeah, great 90 minute ride in like 45 degree weather. First I'm cold and bundled up, then I'm warm and take my jacket off. But the wind chills me and I decide to stuff my jacket up the front of my jersey, which did the trick. The toes were frozen though, I need to get some of those cool Craft wool socks. Or maybe it's time to get some new, thicker shoe covers. Either that or bust out the old socks as shoe covers, yeah! Time for bed, must rest for ride as well as other things.

Fun Friday!

Well, I made it to Friday without killing anyone! Lucky for these "anyones" I speak of cause I was getting close to the edge. I've got a couple of irons in the fire right now that are troublesome. One thing that looms over my head, well, not just mine, but others as well, is a security assessment by the state. Another issue is the weather forecast for the next 10 days, RAIN! And Christmas, wheee, fun when you are under the drinking age or have kids (I meet neither of those criteria), has long since lost it's luster.

But I digress.

So, security. Were talking physical security, data security, access controls and many other fun security stuff which obviously needs to be protected and reviewed. This I do understand. What I don't understand is having to go through the process for a second time. We did this whole deal about 18 months ago where there never seemed to be any resolution, but since then our contract with one organization has changed, which is what is lead up to this security assessment. So, along with a couple of other folks form our Fresno office, I get to fill out a 62 page assessment document on our current environment. UGH, last time it took us an entire week to fill out a similar document. I'm not looking forward to doing this. But, it's my job and for the sake of being secure, it's necessary.

I've premptively began running some security tools agains our machines on the network and patching and fixing the problems found. Spent about 3 hours working on just 1 server yesterday. So, maybe I'll speak more on this topic later when I become even more frustrated by it.

Ok, now for a weather update. Winter has just arrived to California no less than 3 weeks ago, when it actually got cold. Now it's full blown winter, with daily temperatures between 30 and 50. I'm sure those in the midwest or east are laughing at me being a baby. But all kidding aside, the next 10 days is all rain so I'll be getting friendly with the trainer and afternoon TV starting as early as Sunday.

Ah, and then Christmas. Hanging with the family isn't the problem, I enjoy every moment of that, it's just all the driving. As well, if we go to my parents house then my wife doesn't see her family. To see them both on this special day would require hours in the car and the trip from Chico to Martinez is long enough already without a stop north of Sacramento. So, since I've been dreading it, we haven't even discussed what are plans really are. But I'm fairly sure that at least I will be going to my parents house for the day.

Well, it's time for me to take a quick lunch hour before we have a two hour "Holiday Party" at work. Gotta be PC as we live in a big melting pot, right? I need to watch my food intake as I plan to ride directly after this party. I'll see if I can snap a few photos of said Holiday Party and post later.

KGSN Team in Chico

As I reported last week, the Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada Pro cycling team is shacked up in Chico for a week to do their first camp. I haven't actually seen anyone from the team riding around, not that I'm even sure what they would look like, but I assume they'd be wearing last years kit and be in a pack of upto 12 riders. Anyway, I'm sure they ride during the nicest part of the day, in my world it's known as working hours, so it's no wonder I haven't seen them.

But, I have been covertly eyeing team riders blogs and believe the team is staying at the Marriott Extended Stay, which is about 3 blocks from my house. I doubt any of them read my blog, but if they do, please note: don't tell us your room number! There are crazy fans out there and you just never know!

I'm speaking of Dan Schmatz and his blog, which I enjoy reading, called Your Bike Sucks. Good stuff!

New News About Cycling Grand Tours

In contrast to what I said before, the three Grand Tours pulling out of the ProTour has now totally changed the calendar of the ProTour. Read what CyclingNews.com had to say.

Taken from CyclingNews.com...

The UCI's ProTour project looks to be under big pressure following the news that the organizers of the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España have pulled out of the series with immediate effect. Speaking at a press conference today, the organizers announced that they are also withdrawing the eight other races organized by them, namely Paris Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Paris-Tours and the Tour of Lombardy.

Shocking! Pulling out all the other races which they organise is huge. This could break the ProTour, though there are still plenty of other races. Only problem is that the ASO runs the most popular, oldest, most prestigious races.

Fun Links

This is funny if you like cycling and or have ever heard commentary by Phil and Paul. http://www.yard-work.org/?cat=18 Game of the Week Re-enactment: Yankees @ Red Sox, July 15, 2005 by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin

Another cycling oriented funny link. http://www.yard-work.org/?cat=135 Frank Vandenbroucke discusses the drug problem in Major League Baseball.

Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada Cycling Pro Team Announced

Kodak and Sierra Nevada have re-upped their sponsorship for the 2006 season after successful 2005 season. You can read the official press release here: http://www.kgsncycling.com/news/1228_2006roster.html

The 6 remaining riders from last years squad will be joined by 6 new riders, 3 of which are brand spankin' new pros. Way to go new guys! Well, I'm sure they aren't that new cause you don't get a job like that riding circles around the bike path in Bidwell Park. So, the returning riders are:

Dominique Perras
Ben Jacques-Maynes
Pete Lopinto
Dan Schmatz
Jackson Stewart
Scott Zwizanski

The new guys are:

Jason Allen
Jesse Anthony
Skyler Bishop
Mike Dietrich
Martin Gilbert
David Robinson


Anyway, yesterday they made the announcement and I heard that the team will spend the weekend in Chico doing the team camp. That would be cool to see them out riding around. At least the weather is nice for them this weekend; it's supposed to be in the mid 60's and somewhat sunny.

Also, in a couple of weeks they are supposed to announce the bike sponsor. It'll be interesting to see what they are riding this year after rocking the Serotta's last year. That's a tough act to follow but I'm sure whatever they ride, it won't suck. I'm also interested to see how the kit will change. I really liked the look of last years kit, so I'd be happy if they just replaced the panel with the Serotta sponsorship on it to the current rides logo.

Ok, now it's time to sneak away from work and go ride. OH, and don't forget to catch the live CX Nats on cyclingnews.com on both Saturday and Sunday.

Grand Tours Out of ProTour Schedule

After over a year of squabbling over endless issues, the three grand tours of cycling, the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta a Espana, have announced they will no longer participate in the ProTour.

Patrice Clerc, president of Tour de France organizers ASO said, "the three Tours would still be on the world calendar next year, although not with the Pro-Tour label, but he added a separate calendar with the three Tours and maybe one new event could see the light in 2007.

The prospect of another major tour or the increase in status of a lesser tour is exciting, at least from my perspective. Heck, they could make a grand tour circuit with four races and crown an overall grand tour champion.

It was mentioned that the ProTour will lose much of its significance without the three major Tours, in one article I read. I don't believe that to be true. I think that even without the grand tours, the ProTour can succeed. It's not as if there weren't already other ProTour races run during the grand tours, but I can see how participation in the grand tours might take away the possibility to gain needed points in the ProTour rankings. That would have to be a choice of the team and rider as to which would be more important to their goals and the goals of their sponsors. And a tough one it would be... skip the one of more of the biggest races with potentially the teams biggest star rider so that he can gain points in the ProTour standings.

I suppose that isn't too much different from the schedule from the past where riders in the World Cup might skip important races to be rested for World Cup events. Though, most World Cup events landed around the grand tours on the race calendar, so maybe it's not a direct correlation.

Either way, I feel that cycling will endure these growing pains and come out stronger than before. But, that could be because cycling in America seems to be on a major upswing where as in Europe, fans are disillusioned by all the drug scandals.

Smart Soccer Balls...

The referee might not be able to tell if the ball crossed the goal line and maybe even TV replays might not be able to help make certain calls, but smart soccer balls can make the correct call every time.

But, such balls will not be used in the 2006 World Cup to be held in Germany. FIFA have shown interest in technology advances in football and believe the chipped ball could help referees when call is a difficult one.

The article I read didn't mention the technology used to create the chipped ball, but I imagine it would be something similar to anti-theft devices used at your local store, in combination with sensors on the goal lines.

I wonder if this might be implemented for the Robot World Cup?

Useless ride info...

OK, before I get to the useless ride info, I need to give some credit where credit is due. When I blog, most of the time I attempt to credit the source where I find the information. But unlike you're high school term paper, citing sources for blogs tends to be a little different. I believe because information is posted so quickly to blogs that to cite all the sources would make for a really long post and technically I believe it's only proper to cite the original source. This topic was brought up over at FixedGear blog. English majors and journalists, let here what you have to say about this I imagine you guys need to cite stuff all the time.

So, on that note, useless ride info (an idea blatantly borrowed from FixedGear Blog):

Friday
1.5 hours of loops around the park
4 loops plus ride to and from park = 30 miles
.5 hours of stomach workout

Saturday
2 hours of loops around the park
5 loops plus ride to and from park = 38 miles

Sunday
It's really cold out and I want to watch football with friends so I'm not so sure about today's ride. Currently 7:30 AM, 36 degrees and slightly hazy.

Oh, couple of other notes. 9 time rider of the Tour de France and all around American cycling stud, Frankie Andreu will grace the Sierra Nevada Brewery with his presence, Monday evening for the Chico Velo Holiday party. I will not be attending since it's $40 and I think I'll be spending that money on a Christmas tree. Sorry Frankie, but I'll have to catch up with you one OLN.

Also, on one of my loops yesterday, I ran into a few guys that I see around all the time. Upon catching up with one of them, I asked where they had been that day. Mind you it was about noon-ish... The guy tells me they are just finishing up with 106 miles. Insane, but not unusual for these guys. One of them is sponsored by SoulCraft and rides in the Elite mtn bike class and I believe CAT2 road. The guy I spoke with is just an all around hammerhead as is the third guy. I've seen these guys riding half way between Chico and Sacramento before, so I shouldn't be surprised. But I was!

It Was a Wet Ride...

Well, I did go out and ride yesterday. Sure enough, as soon as I walked out the door from work, it was sprinkling. But I had worked myself up to getting out there and riding rather than get on the trainer inside.

After dealing with getting my wife's car towed (she lost her AAA card so I needed to be there with mine) and getting dressed for the rain, I was finally out the door at 3:15.

It rained for all of 5 minutes before stopping for about an hour. Then it started to come down lightly but grew to a steady rain moments later. I was about 8 miles from home at that point and started to ride at full effort as to get home without getting too wet.

About 2 miles later I notice a pressure reduction in the rear tire but refuse to believe it's going flat. Another mile passes and my denial turns to reality when I notice the sidewalls bulging under the lack of pressure in the tire. Pissed, I grab for the break levers and skid to a stop whipping around the fanny pack which holds all my tools and CO2 pump. I pump the tire and pull the pump off and hop back on the bike in one motion as to make as much progress toward home before the air escapes once again. I ride another couple of miles before I need to apply more air. This occurs twice before I reach home as the skys really let loose.

Due to lack of sunlight the ride only lasted about 80 minutes and made for a messy bike. I still have to take my chain out of the degreaser at lunchtime if I plan to ride the trainer tonight.

What Kind of Blogger are YOU!

http://mistersnitch.blogspot.com/2005/11/blogging-styles-and-traffic-stats.html

Mister Snitch believes they have been blogging long enough to determine "at least" seven distinct types of traffic-generating blogging styles. Check out their article at the link above.

Though the list is quiet nice, I'm sure there can be other types added to their list as did Darren over at www.problogger.net with his list of 20 types of blog posts. Both sites are great to read if you are interested in blogging styles, promotion, and information pertaining to blogging in general.

I believe this blog falls somewhere between 3) Nichebloggers, aka localbloggers and 1) Meme-du-jour bloggers, who comment on the high-profile ideas of the moment.

I think the other blog I'm going to be working on, "Tour of California Blog", will be more of a 2) Caterers determine what an audience segment wants to hear, and pursue that theme aggressively, as it's going to be strictly about a specific event.

Happy Day!

Pickem picture