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My First 200K Rando Report

Well, some of you know I’m somewhat of a bike nut. Some of you may even know that I’m a little on the crazy side. That’s why, when I discovered the “sport” of Randonneuring, and I saw how crazy the people are, I had to get in on some of that action.

Randonneuring, or “rando” for short, is basically slower paced long-distance cycling. The official rules have options for 200K, 300K, 400K, 600K, and 1200K rides, all basically without support, and without stopping for any real length of time. You’re basically riding around the clock, and the 1200K rides are known to stretch into 3+ days.

I figured I would hook up with the New Orleans chapter of RUSA and see what the fuss was about. Now, to most people, I’m a pretty accomplished rider. I log about 3000 miles a year commuting, and I’ve done several 75-mile-a-day charity rides. I don’t think twice about knocking out 50 miles. How hard could it be to do 125 miles, right?

Hah. Continue reading “My First 200K Rando Report”

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Non-Comformist, Just Like Everybody Else

I was reading a blog post this morning about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self Reliance” and it got me thinking. Anybody who knows me can verify that I’m a non-conformist in the purest sense of the word. I have this compelling urge to do things differently, sometimes for no good reason. It’s gotten me in a lot of trouble, but has also provided experiences I would never have been able to see if I had been “normal.” This particular morning, however, I was brought to the realization that much of my non-conformism is a form of selfish idolatry.. for me to simply exercise my right to be different without any goal is simply selfishness.

What then is the good of being a non-conformist? Emerson seems to think the act of following your own will is the ultimate expression of individuality, but all too often, my will has led me astray. The only direction I have that has any meaning is that direction I receieve from God, for I know it’s true, it’s pure, and it is selfless. Only then, when I am bucking the system for the sake of loving and serving others, does my role as a non-conformist become truly satisfying and complete. Everything is justified, and I need not answer to anyone but God.

A lot of misguided people have been led astray by their own will, claiming it was the will of God. I can see in Emerson’s writings how following what you feel can end up that way. Possibly he assumed everyone listening to his voice was a follower of God, and reading the essay, it seems that’s the case. One thing is for sure: God will not give you a vision that does not accomplish His goals, nor will he give you a mission that tarnishes His perfect image. I am tempted to back away from the ledge, and for fear of going outside of God’s will, do nothing radical at all. But I still hear the call to go and serve, and I can’t ignore it. It drives me, it was in my blood even before I knew God, because He had put it there for me to use to serve Him.

Non-conformism for the sake of serving and loving people as an example of God’s love is a worthy and noble cause. Non-conformism for the sake of getting attention and thrills will only end in disappointment and spiral into more grandiose acts of rebellion, none of which will satisfy the itch that God has placed in you.

So in your non-comformism, whom are you serving?

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Working On Relaxing

For the last few months, I’ve been busy with trying to eliminate my non-essential time commitments. It’s been rather hard, especially when people you know are always asking for favors, asking you to fix things, and dropping broken stuff at your desk to fix. For free.

I’ve gotten to the point where in order for me to be able to finish the music projects I want to do, I’ve had to put everything else on a back burner. The good news is I’ve got a new laptop and mixer to work with! It should speed things up considerably. I’ll post up some bits of it in action when I work on it this weekend.

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My Weight Loss

Most of you know, I’ve been losing weight for the last four months or so. Since I had Salmonella poisoning last November (which took six weeks to recover from) I hadn’t exercised much at all. Earlier this year, my weight was hovering above 205 pounds, probably closer to 210.  At my heaviest, I weighed 225, which was several years ago, so I was proud that I had gotten down to 205. However, I knew my ideal weight was much less than that. I still had a paunch gut, and lacked energy to do anything.

Somewhere around this time, I started working with Mike. He got me turned on to healthy eating, and got me started reading up on food in general. Up until then, I never really thought about what I ate. I mean, I live in Cajun Country, we eat everything! Sadly, it had taken its toll on my body, and I wasn’t feeling too good about it. At Mike’s urging, I decided to eliminate all artificial ingredients from my diet. I switched to organic, whole foods as much as possible. At the same time, I decided I was going to start riding my bike again, at least 10 miles a day.

The key to my losing weight was controlling not just what I ate, but how much. I went from eating 3000+ calories a day to less than 2000. I felt better, I had more energy, and lost weight. I found out that if you eat healthier foods, you don’t need as much to nourish your body. That, combined with some moderate exercise was all it took. Trust me, I was not killing myself on the bike… about an hour of medium effort was all I needed. I lost a total of 35 pounds in 3 months, and have kept it off, even though I’ve increased my food intake and don’t ride as much. Even if I start to creep upward, I know how to take it off again. For the last month, I’ve been hovering between 170 and 175.

The main keys are: eat healthier (this doesn’t mean diet foods! Think “natural”) eat less, and exercise a little more. That’s it.

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Times They Are A’ Changin

Okay, first off, I’m not a huge Bob Dylan fan. I just like the name of the song.

Secondly, I’m in a quandry. Most of you know I’ve been commuting to work on my bike (pedal powered, not a motorcycle, it always irritates me when people call their motorcycles “bikes”).  In a word, it’s fantastic. I’ve lost weight, gotten healthier, and I actually enjoy the trip to work and back (being at work is a different story entirely). Most of you also know I’m a huge car nut… I love fast cars. I own a sports compact car, which I love to bring to the track and abuse. It’s somewhat of a drama queen, as nothing on it is cheap to fix, and it is rather fickle. And did I mention it’s ridiculously fun to drive? However, it’s paid for, and I’m not really tempted to sell it.

Except that I am really tempted to sell it. Less than a year ago, I was at the point of almost having to sell it, because we just couldn’t afford the cost of owning it for very long… however, we managed to pay it off, and our monthly bills dropped more than $300. I was ecstatic. I didn’t have to sell my fast car. My dream didn’t die. Continue reading “Times They Are A’ Changin”

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Finished My Second MS150

A few weeks ago, I finished my second Multiple Scleroses 150 mile tour. A good friend of mine came down with Multiple Scleroses last year, and so I rode a custom chopper bicycle for the tour in 2009. It was a blast, but the bike was really slow, and I only made it 115 miles before tornado warnings stopped us.

This year, I decided to use a “faster” bike. Unfortunately, the fastest bike I had was a Schwinn hardtail which I use to commute. Of course, I couldn’t just ride a road bike like everybody else there. Oh no, I had to do something different. Why not ride the commuter, and pack my bags too? And hey, why not a Hawaiian shirt. They’re cool. So that’s what I did.

There were more than 1200 riders, and they raised more than $500,000 in donations for the National Multiple Scleroses Society. I had a great ride, and finished both days strong (though not fast).

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The Workings Of An ADD Brain

Anybody who knows me knows that I’m seriously random at times, and I know all sorts of random facts and things. I’ve been asked several times if I’ve applied for the game show Jeopardy and to be honest, I don’t know why I haven’t yet. For instance, on my lunch break today, I went on a Wikipedia binge that started with Hot Fries, and ended with Frankenstien and Martin Luther King Jr. No, seriously.

Here’s how it went:

I treated myself to a small bag of Hot Fries, which are spicy fried corn and potato snacks. I always read ingredients, and I noticed this bag has 100 calories, and contains MSG.

I look up MSG and find it’s Monosodium Glutemate, the artificial salt version of glutamic acid(which is a naturally occurring checmical in things like seaweed, soy sauce, etc). It was invented by a Japanese scientist in 1907. I’m curious about what exactly makes up a “salt” and so I click the link.

I learn about different kinds of salt, and how they’re extracted. I also notice the article “salt” mentions the famous Mohandas Ghandi, as one of his peaceful acts of civil disobedience was making salt when the British government forbid it so that people would pay their salt tax.

I do some reading on Ghandi, and find that he was heavily influenced by a paper written byHenry David Thoreau, who was a non-violent activist from America. I also find that he was known for reciting the Percy Shelly poem, “The Masque of Anarchy” which was in response to thePeterloo Massacre.

I do some reading on Shelly, and find out that his second wife was Mary Shelly, who wrote the novel Frankenstein. I also find out that the Thoreau paper (“Civil Disobedience”) was one of the major influences on a young Martin Luther King Jr, who then became an advocate of non-violent protest as well.

So there you have it, in the span of less than 30 minutes, I went from Hot Fries to Martin Luther King Jr. I could have gone farther and looked into MLK day and various black history dates, which would have led me who knows where.

Just goes to show, ADD is good for something!

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Interesting Fact Of The Day

The largest bomb ever built and detonated was AN602 (Tsar Bomba) in 1961. It produced an explosion equivalent to 50 million tons of TNT. The fireball was 5 miles wide, and the blast radius was more than 22 miles, capable of destroying even the largest city in a single blast. In comparison, it was 2400 times stronger than the bomb used to destroy Hiroshima, and due to a triple-stage fusion-boosted process, was about the same physical size. The mushroom cloud was 7 times higher than Mt. Everest. Even though it was detonated 4 miles above the Earth’s surface, the seismic shock measured as a 5.25 on the Richter scale, and traveled all the way around the planet 3 times. Atmospheric focusing carried the blast damage to more than 600 miles away from ground zero. It generated 1.4% as much energy as the sun itself. The entire explosion took less than a half a second.

It was the single most powerful device ever created by mankind. And do you want to know the scary part?

They only ran it at half yeild; it was designed to yeild a 100 MegaTon explosion.

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Music Looping Hardware

I’ve been tossing around the idea of looping with hardware for quite a while, basically since I first heard of it a few months ago. It would allow me to perform music with much more flexibility than just me playing a single instrument, and it is a lot of fun, too. I am now at the point where I have to decide what kind of setup I want to use, and work on getting it functional in my setup.

If you’re interested in this kind of thing, there’s three routes you can go: a dedicated looping pedal, an analog tape delay (or equivalent), or a computer with software. Here’s a brief look at the three, and why I chose the last one.

Looper Pedals

These would include pedals by Digitech, Boss, Line6, and a few others. Each company makes a few different models, each with more buttons/features than the last. The two most popular are the Boss RC Series, and the Digitech JamMan series, both of which come in different sizes and with different features. Continue reading “Music Looping Hardware”