Rook's Rant

2012 Tour De Rook - Leg 7

2012-05-13T23:12:52Z

To the stats!

Total Distance: 14.80 miles
Elapsed riding time: 01:04:08
Top Speed: 20.0 mph
Average Speed: 13.7 mph
iPod: Nazareth - Hair of the Dog & Done Henley - Building the Perfect Beast
Wind: 13 mph WSW
Humidity 14%
Temperature: 72° F

And this is for today. Headed north from home until I got to the driveway of my job. Eventually the plan is to ride to and from work. Eventually. I need a small backpack that allows me to carry my cloths to work. I at least there is a locker room and I have a locker.

2012 Tour De Rook - Leg 6

2012-05-12T13:34:05Z

To the stats!

Total Distance: 12.15 miles
Elapsed riding time: 00.:53:30
Top Speed: 26.7 mph
Average Speed: 13.6 mph
iPod: Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More & Indigo Girls - Rites of Passage
Wind: 5 mph WNW
Humidity 22%
Temperature: 63° F

New trail! In fact, I am living in a new place. I will tell more later. However, I will say the new trail does have hills so I was pleasantly surprised at my average speed. Oh, this actually is from Tuesday, May 12, 2012.

2012 Tour De Rook - Leg 5

2012-04-24T00:17:12Z

To the stats!

Total Distance: 6.72 miles
Elapsed riding time: 0.31.56
Top Speed: 21.7 mph
Average Speed: 12.6 mph
iPod: None
Wind: 5 mph NW
Humidity 45%
Temperature: 59° F

I just did not have it in me to go very far, or very hard. It happens.

And They Have There Gate!

2012-04-17T23:21:56Z

I figured it was only a matter of time before the Republicans, in desperation, would find something to use as a clarion call for impeachment. Will they succeed? Probably not. However, it would take up time in the house, preventing any real work from being accomplished, and possibly hold up the economic recovery.

Sigh. What else do they have to throw at the President? It is not like he really destroyed the economy. Indeed, he managed to enact enough legislation to help it slowly improve. And Mitt is simply not going to be able to convince most voters that the economy is tanking due to the President's policies. Meanwhile, the Republican establishment, and it's more rabid extremists (otherwise known as conservatives these days) will certainly not back Mitt. So, that leaves them with only the hope of impeachment.

So, you know, yeah. Go ahead House Republicans. Impeach President Obama. Come on, you know you want to. Oh, sure, it is an election year, but you have moral outrage on your side. As well as God. Or so you have told us many times.

Since the rabid extremists of the Republican Party (did I mention they are otherwise known as conservatives these days?) are anti-intellectual, it means they have not bothered to take history classes. If they did, they would have learned that after the impeachment of the last Democratic President, his approval ratings shot into the mid to upper 80s.

Come on! It is a winning hand! There is no down side to this. So stop pussy footing around and one of you make a motion to start impeachment proceedings. Hell, I have plenty of popcorn.

Do it! I dare you. I double dare you.

2012 Tour De Rook - Leg 4

2012-04-13T00:22:48Z

To the stats!

Total Distance: 10.63 miles
Elapsed riding time: 0.47.25
Top Speed: 22.9 mph
Average Speed: 13.4 mph
iPod: Rock Mix on shuffle
The Wallflowers - Bringing Down the Horse - Invisible City
The Alan Parsons Project - The Best of The Alan Parsons Project - Eye In The Sky
Santana - Greatest Hits - Everybody's Everything
Sarah McLachian - Surfacing - Black & White
The Beatles - The White Album - Lady Madonna
The Beatles - 1967/1970 - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Wallflowers - Bringing Down the Horse - God Don't Make Lonely Girls
The Beatles - 1967/1970 - Something
John Lennon - The John Lennon Collection - Mind Games
The Beatles - 1967/1970 - Let It Be
Melissa Etheridge - Brave & Crazy - Mo Souvenirs
The Beatles - White Album - Birthday
The Alan Parsons Project - The Best of the Alan Parsons Project - Psychobabble
Wind: 6 mph SSE
Humidity 29%
Temperature: 57° F

Yeah, doing much better on the Tour this year.

Bryan Forwards The Easter Bunny's Response

2012-04-08T13:30:13Z

Seriously, you need to go read the open letter posted by Bryan at "Why Now?" from The Easter Bunny. It is very informative.

2012 Tour De Rook - Leg 3

2012-04-06T00:02:49Z

To the stats!

Total Distance: 8.44 miles
Elapsed riding time: 0.37.18
Top Speed: 21.6 mph
Average Speed: 13.5 mph
iPod: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II & IV
Wind: 7 mph ENE gusting to 20 mph
Humidity 34%
Temperature: 53° F

After Tuesday's disappointing speed, today's makes me feel better.

2012 Tour De Rook - Leg 2

2012-04-03T23:19:58Z

Yes. Two days in a row! To the stats:

Total Distance: 8.43 miles
Elapsed riding time: 0.39.58
Top Speed: 22.7 mph
Average Speed: 12.6 mph
iPod: Elton John - Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
Wind: 12 mph NNE gusting to 20 mph
Humidity 26%
Temperature: 61 F

Yeah, yeah. I know. A dramatic drop in the average speed today. I did hit major hills today. Well, for Grantsburg they are major. See, the land around town is flat, but the Wood river flows through the heart of Grantsburg, with a wide, relatively tall valley. Compared to the Mississippi bluffs around Hastings and Prescott they are ant hills. Still, they are of sufficient grade to give me a challenge, and a work out.

2012 Tour De Rook - Leg 1

2012-04-03T01:09:09Z

That is right, ladies and gentlemen. It is time once again for the start of my fight against old age. However, I must confess, my plan to exercise at Anytime Fitness paid off. I will let the stats tell the rest of the story.

Total Distance: 8.55 miles
Elapsed riding time: 0.36.20
Top Speed: 18.4 mph
Average Speed: 14.2 mph
iPod: Eric Clapton - Unplugged
Wind: 9 mph E
Humidity 58%
Temperature: 55 F

It is the Average Speed that I am amazed at. 14.2 mph! When I would ride the flat road down in Hastings last year, which was flatter than the roads I took today - north and west of Grantsburg - I was lucky to hit 13 mph. Also, my feet and butt would be so sore I could barely walk after finishing most of my runs.

However, I took my bike to Eric's Bike Shop, got new tires, a new rear brake cable, and most importantly, a new seat. The old one was too wide, pinching the nerves and cutting off blood to my legs. Some days my toes in my left foot would be numb for an hour after my ride.

Today? Not so much. I rode strait through from start to end without even stopping to stretch. Other than my inner, upper thighs being sore, not a hint of numbness to my toes. Nor was there any threat of cramps to my arches. All in all a very satisfying and positive experience. I look forward to many more of my legs.

It's Going To Go Viral

2012-03-31T10:43:39Z

They obviously are driving on a road as they perform. Amazing.

The computer age is changing the music industry. I can see why the RIAA is freaking out. When musicians can produce a video like the one above with out any crew, it means cutting the old dinosaurs at RIAA out of the money. As John said: Win

This Is Amazing!

2012-03-21T11:33:14Z

No Liquids Were Spewed

2012-03-20T00:29:25Z

But only because I was not drinking any at the time I saw this photo.

Kevin Gets Paranoid

2012-03-14T01:47:58Z

Okay, I like Kevin Drum, over at Mother Jones. I really do. However, sometimes he just gets fatalistic. His concern that the sponsor exodus happening right now to Rush Limbaugh is some sort of slippery slope leading to the downfall of political shows in general is just plain ridiculous. Seriously. You would think a Boggart came crawling into Kevin's home office just before he started writing his post.

And yet....there's an obvious slippery slope here. Lots of advertisers already shy away from political shows of every stripe, and this episode could begin to drive them all away. Why take the chance, even on a host who doesn't usually cause national outrage? "Usually" isn't never, after all, and in any case, you never know what a guest is going to say. Better to stick with local blowhards and self-help shows.

Limbaugh is getting what he finally deserves. I couldn't be happier about it. I just hope that down the road this doesn't turn into a preemptive boycott of every political gabber out there who has even the smallest chance of ever producing any national blowback. That runs the risk of turning every show into a bland marshmallow. It wouldn't make the world a better place.

What gets me is that Kevin is usually quite good at looking up research, or finding historical evidence to back up his claims. However, the above quoted post lacks both. So, all I can do is chalk this up to fear.

But why would he be scared? He blogs for a publication that exists financially by a totally different form of support. And what advertising there is is from companies with an explicit political agenda. They are not going to pull their ads because of some national outrage. Chances are they want that outrage to occur. So, it is not a fear of his losing his gig as blogger for Mother Jones.

I think Kevin is seeing this one tree as indicative of the entire forest. Or would somehow working in "one bad apple does not make the whole barrel bad" be the better metaphor?

Wait.... No.

Kevin is talking about Rush. I am talking about Kevin. I will stick with the tree/forest metaphor. If I was talking about Rush, then I could use the barrel metaphor.

You Know What Bothers Me?

2012-03-07T02:32:44Z

You do? Really? Good, because I did not want to have to explain it to you.

Late Morning Chuckle

2012-03-04T16:29:11Z

I know, it is not in the original Klingon. Still, it is funny.

Hey, at least they had subtitles!