Crushed by an Irish Angel

I blame Old-as-Dirt for the humiliating exit I made from yesterdays race. It couldn't possibly be the lack of training, weight or general suckiness of my form.

Grand Fondo Ephrata

Now this is an event I can get behind!

ZOMG!!!! Mariners are suck!!!

The freak out over the Mariner's unimpressive Spring Training is starting. From a rating point of view I understand that promoting ZOMG Freakouts is always a bigger winner than calm analysis. Nevertheless I'd like to remind everyone that the only standings that matter start after Spring Training ends. One reason Jackie Z is good is because he takes a methodical approach to his job.

Will the Mariners be good next year? Nothing is guaranteed. But the structure is in place. So Chill the fuck out people. They've got this.

Vacation!

Two weeks of vacation (with a few interruptions from work)means riding!

Who wants to win a bike race

Having accepted my lot as a Masters rider (maybe, let's see how long I can take it) I realize I am going to need to make some deals if I am going to win. I need the races to be hard and fast. Unfortunately, I can't do that by myself. So I am going to need some help. Who out their has the balls (that's right, I am talking about real cojones!) to sack up and join me in my crusade to make every Masters rider at PR suffer like never before?

Hell, you can even have the win!

IJM, Excel and Starbucks are out. They have some fast finishers with excellent short games. So they aren't going to help out (although I contend Starbucks will be better served over the course of the season to ride a little more as a team... otherwise it'll just be one guy winning on his own with a couple other guys in the same jersey).

Tech Chumpery

For those who haven't been following the story of the Merion County PA school with the bright idea to install a program on laptops loaned to students that allowed the school to remotely activate the webcams read here.

As this winds its way through court let's not loose sight of the key fact: Virginia DeMadio and Michael Perbix are both idiots and should never have a position of responsibility again.

It's not uncommon for developers (in any profession) to get absorbed into the cool-factor of what they are working on. But both these people were paid to implement a strategy for tracking stolen laptops and chose a tool that really serves no value in tracking down computers* but does allow uncontrolled invasion of students lives. And if the rumors are true, and I suspect they are, that some of the snapshots are of students in their underwear I hope both are charged as sex predators.

*note that the stories Perbix gave touting the success of the picture snapping boiled down to racking the PCs down by IP address.

Masters Chumpery

From the WSBA listserv:

rom: XXXXX
Date: Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 1:53 PM
Subject: Re: [WSBA] Rules on Neutrals?
To: XXXXX


Actually the Ladies didn't catch us. It was the 2 or 3 riders in the break away for the ladies cat 1,2,3 that caught us. When we slowed down for several miles due to the officials slowing us downthe pack then caught us. Funny how we passed them later on and they never got close again.

Kevin

My first reaction was "Seriously?" So you didn't ger caught by the ladies except you did. But you didn't really get caught because the officials slowed you down? I think you are confusing cause and effect. The officials neutralized you because you were caught by the womens break. You didn't get caught because you were neutralized. You were neutralized because you were caught.

If it is that much of an ego blow to get caught by the women? Bicycle racing is not done (usually) at full tilt. You go fast. You go slow. And then you go fast. I've been in Cat 1/2 races that were caught by the women before. Cause we were going really slow. And then we went fast. It happens.

Anyway I am sure that your awesome 48th place was because of all the hard work you did keeping those women at bay after the officials stopped "slowing you down". Which, just to be clear, is a backhanded way of saying it's rather clear that the women had no impact on your actual result and that you're just whining to rationalize your unimpressive result.

If it bothers you that much you should probably find a better fit like touring were you can ride your pace all the time and then impress your friends with stories of all the women you successfully dropped cause you are *so* fast.

Keep your rules out of my bike racing!

It appears I have been drug into the neutral roll out controversy:

We're obviously talking about 2 different scenarios here (as Joe H. has
pointed out).

Sounds like Brian and Phil are talking about a race being neutralized AFTER
it had been officially started and when it passed another group on the road.

Mike and Joe S. are talking about the neutral roll out at the beginning of a
race.

I think lead drivers need to be educated as to what a "Neutral Roll-out"
actually means, and what they are supposed to do, which is keep the bunch
neutralized and not allow riders off the front until a race is officially
started.

Joe's point (I think) is that it's not the riders responsibility to stay
neutral, all they need to do is stay behind the lead car.

This is a favorite move of Johnny Sundt and Michael Pruitt, that is, to
"attack" in the neutral roll out. ;-)

Cheers!
-Ian

Like the Tea Baggers I don't recognize the authority of officials and their so-called "neutral" roll-outs. Keep you rules out of my bike racing!

Agile Man 2

Looks like I am once again Agile Man. Which is funny, cause I am not an all Agile all the time guy. But since Agile is hot again and I know me some Agile good there you go.

Watchmen was good, Wanted not so much

I finally got around to reading and then watching the famed "Wanted" by Mark Millar. First off, Mark Millar is a bad man. I don't mean that in a good way. Wanted the comic had to be about the most morally revolting comic book I've read. It glories in violence, rape and assorted other bad acts. Which would be ok if there was some underlying truth being delivered here. There isn't. The point of wanted appears to be a statement not about our concept of heroes, our world or any of that stuff most good comics are really about. It's about making a revolting comic and getting it published just to prove you can. It's the kind of book stupid people think is deep. Mark Waid does this much better in the series Irredeemable, the story of what would happen if Superman were real. Short version: he'd probably end up insane.

Luckily, the movie ejected the wholehearted embrace of evil. On the other hand it has Angelina Jolie. Who sucks. The character of Fox is an bad-ass. I don't know why Hollywood thinks Angeline Jolie is the go to action chick. She's a anorexic waif who constantly looks like she's on a coke/heroin binge. Her arms are skinny and she's got no grace.

Here's hoping Irredeemable gets made into a good movie and Angelina becomes a stay at home mom.

reality is checking me

Mrs. PruDog says no weekend racing until after she's done with UW's Business program. Bummer. Although she's probably saving me from being humiliated by the KR fem-bots as they lap me twice in one race.

In other ranting no one cares about: can I get a ban on phrases like "economists say" and "economists predict" when reporters are really referring to MBAs working at banks providing business analysis/advocacy and aren't trained economists? Please?