Sunday, June 29, 2008

The need to pee

Every time before I go on a bike ride, I have this ridiculous desire to pee say.. 2-3 times in the 5-10 minutes it takes for me to get ready. And I usually do go to the bathroom around 2-3 times before I actually leave the apartment. I think just the fact that I know it will be a pain in the arse to go in the next few hours, makes me just super nervous and want to pee again and again. Yet every time I do this, I feel a little ridiculous...

Thursday, June 12, 2008

ridiculous prices of the 2007 Bordeaux futures

The 2007 Bordeaux futures are so ridiculous expensive, the wine seller I've been getting price quotes from are including a disclaimer in their price lists:

"Obviously we wish these wines were less expensive, and the strong Euro cannot be blamed on the Châteaux's pricing policy, but we feel obliged to point out there are other wines that offer considerably better value for money. We cannot condone the price for the 2007, but we feel we have to make an offer of some of the world's great wines."

Pretty sad, they are pretty much unaffordable at this point. The prices are just insane. Especially since the 2007 vintage is nothing to write home about.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Review: Bay Area Women's Cycling Clinic

I signed up for this Bay Area Women's Cycling clinic last weekend (schedule here), and I'll say it was a bit of fun, and a good workout.

It definitely made me try a lot of things outside my comfort zone, like being comfortable in a pack, taking corners tighter, trying to ride no hands, and just building confidence.

The first day was more useful in terms of building skills, I felt more confident about certain aspects of being on a bike after the first day (the first day was a bit of bike handling, cornering, pack riding, being around people, pacelines). The first day I think ~50 people showed up (this included some people in racing teams...)

The second day felt more "hard core" for me, around ~30 people signed up, and most of them were the folks in team kits or were signed up to do the death ride this year. We did hill climbing drills (standing on hills, sag climbing, finding your rhythm, ...), and we climbed this hill off of page mill like 7-8 times. After that we went up on page mill (~8 mins of it) for a "real climb"... Then after the climbing we did a mock race. The interesting about this is I realized that I really don't have the desire to beat out other people to get to the front. I just, enjoy riding for the sake of being outside and such.

The best part of the second day was the session talking about exercises that stretch and strength - I learned a bit about which of my muscles were weak, tight, and also some ways to maybe improve on it. I'm looking forward to mixing up my workout routine.

That said, I thought the clinic was extremely useful and also really well organized. Everyone was extremely helpful and cheerful. Nicole has way more energy than anyone I've met. I was impressed by how the organizers managed to block traffic and let the whole group through. There was also lots of swag - I got pink water bottles! Lastly, it was just fun being around a group of upbeat women for the weekend.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Cubee crafts

I think these cubee crafts toys are pretty awesome. Especially when I'm feeling crafty and lazy. You can print out these "patterns" for toys and print them out and make 'em.

I should make myself a domo-kun and a kirby...



Wednesday, June 4, 2008

referer or referrer?

So I'm doing something for work that requires dealing with HTTP referers. Given that I can't spell, I had to go look up which was the correct spelling.

Apparently, referrer is the right spelling, just in not when we are talking about HTTP. I quote wikipedia:

"Referer is a common misspelling of the word referrer. It is so common, in fact, that it made it into the official specification of HTTP – the communication protocol of the World Wide Web – and has therefore become the standard industry spelling when discussing HTTP referers."

Also, if you do a google search on referer and referrer, you get about the same # of hits - ~20 million.

How wonderful, right?

I feel dorky.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

donating money to a good cause?

Lately I've been getting a lot of "donate money for my Tour de Cure/Team In Training" thing... in the last few years I've been getting more and more of these types of emails. I used to say, fine, it's for a good cause.

Now I just wonder if it's worth it. Yesterday I had a conversation with piaw about it too - he seemed to think that most of the money is probably gone into the overhead of planning such an event instead of the charity itself... which I wouldn't doubt. My mom does a bit of charity work for some Hong Kong charities, and she's also indicated to me that a lot of money you donate goes to 9-course meals the higher ups of the charities enjoy.

I guess it also feels weird to hit your friends up for money. I feel guilty for not donating, but I just don't really want to anymore... Piaw also said it feels icky for cycling to be used this way, and I agree. So I guess this year my policy is - I'm just not going to donate any money for these events. Not because I am being cheap or don't love my friends. Just - I don't feel like it's as worthy of a cause anymore.

Edit: so I was talking to a friend earlier, who's riding the TdC this weekend, and he pointed me to this. Which essentially says that the American Diabetes Association isn't all that efficient. And just read about the privacy policy, it apparently sells your info unless you opt-out.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Weird "new" slang

I've been hearing these new terms lately, maybe I'm getting old.

- "Push Present" - apparently this is a present you give your wife/gf after she gives birth to your baby. I mean, the concept makes sense, I guess. The term is just... weird

- "Myspace angles" - pictures at angles which really flatter people and they post said picture on myspace. Funny post about this here. I guess I just find this term, funny.