I do more before 9 AM ...

... than most people do by like 10 or 10:30 in the morning.

So yesterday (Saturday Dec 29) I went for my first bike ride in I don't know how long. I bundled up pretty good, then rushed outside because I was burning up inside. I got on the bike, cruised down the hill, realized I forgot my water bottle, went back up the hill, removed my arm warmers (layer 1 of 3) and went back down the hill.

From there I didn't know where I was going to go. I just knew the trail was not going to happen. So I got to 52nd and headed north/56th/morman bridge road/hwy 75/ then kind of eastish to near Dodge park/downtown/ home.

23.01 miles. 99 minutes. Under 14 MPH average. A new personal worst. In my defense, who cares. It was very enjoyable to be riding on the road again. Having properly dressed for it, my toes felt like this at the end:

Munson should know better.

It was nice and sunny and made me remember why I believe that any money spent on indoor training would probably be better spent on outdoor gear.

This morning, I went to 24 hour disco for a spinning session. The regular girl wasn't there this morning. If I'd have known, I would have really tried to encourage all you shabbos++ people to come. Especially Bryan.

You guys missed out. Not only was there more "Teh Cars" than I've heard in about 25 years (2 songs), But she also did two Bryan Adams songs!!! I know how Bryan of Algona is a huge fan. The first one was "summer of '69". I forget the second one because I was thinking, "You're kidding with this shit, right?"

No Prince though. Sorry Shim. I only want to see you standing in the Purple Rain.

So the spin was ok, but honestly, one decent hill outside kicks the whole spin class' ass.


It's just good to be back on the bike.

Not Optimus Prime

Social D

On Shim's suggestion, I did the trainer thing with Social D's Live at the Roxy. Good choice. It was a good mix of pretty high cadence music. I will now be needing other suggestions for good training music. The Jason Mraz and John Mayer just wasn't working for some reason.

Anyone? What do you like to workout to? I'm new to this whole "Music not played on A.M. radio" thing.

What's your favorite indoor training device?

I have been thinking about how much I dislike cardio training indoors.

Here's a very quick run-down of the ones I use (I hate them all).

At Home:
My least favorite is the trainer. Maybe because I spend the most time on it. It's hard to be motivated for a good workout. On the upside I can watch some good races while I train. I taped (recorded to disk) all of the 2006 TDF (The one with Landis) and even though Landis is a dirty cheat, that comeback was still awesome.

The treadmill is not bad. Every bit as boring as the trainer (I don't have any "running" dvds), but I can actually gage how I will run outside based on the treadmill. No idea with biking and the trainer.

In the Gym:
Spinning is actually pretty fun in a disco sort of way. I have to challenge myself not to be a bike snob, though. The instructor usually has awful form (very asymmetrical spin, like someone galloping down stairs). They say things like "Now we're going to sprint for 60 seconds, then we'll kick it up a notch. C'Mon!!!"

Yeah ok. First of all, who sprints for a minute? Nobody, that's who. But I typically get a better workout spinning than my trainer sessions. The instructor is a good motivator. You have to meet at the scheduled time though, so it's not always an option. The stationary bikes in the general cardio area are worthless. I especially like the stationary recumbants. Seriously. Those are about half a step up from one of these:


One of my favorites (that also sucks) is the stair master. This one turns my legs to stone in about 15 minutes. Nice. It is sort of a hill-climbing workout and can be very difficult.



One of the very popular ones that I just don't get is the elliptical. I used to do this one exclusively when I just did weight training. I'm not sure what's going on there. It's like the Gazelle, but not as cool. It never seemed to matter how hard I went, I rarely got my heart rate going very high. It also didn't really mimic any real life activity. Oh, and it can go backwards for a new challenge! Says so right on the machine.


One that I don't use, but I think might be the best of them all is the rowing machine. I'm just afraid that cable is going to break and snap me in the eye. No thanks. Also, it doesn't have any real-life application for me. If I find myself at some Ivy league college, and they need a guy, I could fill in. Not likely to happen.


I don't really care for winter.

This is exactly what I had feared

The only hesitation I had buying the new iMac was that it now has "Intel inside". That always sounded scary to me anyway. Like there are tiny little CIA operatives living in there.

But the big fear is that as Apples become more and more like PCs, will they become vulnerable to the same problems? Apparently so. I've only had the thing for like 2 weeks and I've already got the xp virus (see photo).




Actually, it's kind of cool. I first installed XP using "Boot Camp". Then I installed "Parallels" a few days later (trial) just to see if it worked as well as many say. Parallels allows you to run windows as a virtual machine so you can drag and drop files between the Mac and the PC. You don't have to reboot or anything. And the windows performance is supposed to be good since xp runs on intel and everything.

I wasn't impressed. It took longer to start the Parallels machine than rebooting (which makes sense). The VM ran pretty slow compared to just running XP.

The real funny thing was that Microsoft required activation on the virtual Machine and then denied it since apparently the VM and the boot camp machine represent 2 different machines - even though I only installed XP once.

Sure Microsoft changed their minds for some mysterious reason after I rebooted, but anyway I removed Parallels so now, I need to reboot to run the iMac with the xp virus.

Oh yeah - I started exercising again yesterday. Man, that was easy.

Blogger with no name

So apparently, I'm Italian. At least on eBay to the 6 people my userid sent the following note to:

Caro Signor ms \:
Siamo un grossista con reputazione migliore nell'onestà e
integrità, pricipalmente vendiamo tutti i generi di prodotti elettronici di marca noma compreso:
cellphone, taccuino, TV, pc, macchina fotografica, GPS, MP3/MP4 e così via ......
Certamente crediamo che il nostro prezzo superiore e più basso, first-class
servizio, che gli porterà la maggior parte dei benefici.
Non esitare a passare in rassegna il nostro Web site dove scoprirete un grande sorprendi piacevolmente.
Metterseli in contatto con:
----

Yeah uh, whatever Don Carleone. Ok, so I was curious about what it was. Frankly, I think Babel Fish needs some work:

Beloved Mr. ms \: We are a wholesaler with better reputation in the honesty and integrity, pricipalmente we sell all the kinds of electronic products of marks noma comprised: cellphone, note-book, TV, PC, camera, GPS, MP3/MP4 and therefore via...... Sure we believe that our advanced price and more bottom, first-class service, than it it will carry the greater part of the benefits. Not to hesitate to pass in review our Web site where you will discover a large one you are strange pleasantly. To put them in contact with:

Anyway, let me know if desire to work with a company with more bottom first class service. I think you'll be strange pleasantly you did!

The iMac is dead, long live the iMac

And just for fun

Ed Norton's ex-girlfriend




Ed's finest role:

and a photo of Pierce Brosnan, Pinky

For Munson

You know what I'm talking about ...

My Name is Judge!

Communication Networks: A+
Biology 1450: B (if I get between a 54 and 89 on the final)
IT Ethics: No idea. I don't get that class. It's all about right and wrong even if you don't get caught. Very confusing.

Notice: Piracy warning

Due to the large number of posts by individual(s) claiming to be me, I've had to adopt a plan to guarantee to you that the messages you read are from the real fredcube. If you see something posted by "me" that does not include the following image, don't read it.

I can not think of any way that this extremely sophisticated security measure could be compromised.

Will this be on the test?

Follow Up: No. It wasn't on the test. But I was ready for it.

and a photo of seal

how to go back in time

and a photo of Pierce Brosnan

Lunch break

9 days