Archive: January 31, 2009

<<< January 30, 2009

Home

February 1, 2009 >>>


riding Palomar

Saturday,  01/31/09  11:17 PM

Today was probably the most beautiful in the history of time.  My friend, colleague, and fellow cyclist Peter Rogan, based in London, flew out for Aperio's annual sales meeting, which meant we did our annual pilgrimage up Mount Palomar.  We began at Lake Henshaw, rode the 10 miles to the base of the South Grade, and then blew up the hill;  3,000' at 7% with 23 switchbacks up to 5,500', just like Alpe d'Huez.  We had chili at Mother's (of course), visited the most excellent Palomar Observatory (of course), and then descended the beautiful East Grade back down to Lake Henshaw.  Overall about 40 miles and about 4,000' of climbing, and as I said on a perfect day.

Not only is this an excellent ride, but it will be featured in the upcoming Tour of California, as the biggest baddest climb in the middle of the final stage.  Should be a great spectating opportunity; yes of course I will be there, stay tuned.

Some pics from the ride:


Peter is ready - Mount Palomar awaits...


The start of the South Grade climb.  7% for 7 miles.  No breaks.


2/3 of the way...  the climb goes on and on and on...


Amazing views on a perfect day - the Coronado Islands can be seen!


Made it!  at Mother's...  we are here on the Tour of California stage map.


Yes, there was snow on the backside, despite 75o sun on the front!


Same as it ever was - the Palomar Observatory.  Love it.

 

Saturday,  01/31/09  11:35 PM

Just a little light blogging after a great ride up Palomar today, and a little drinking in the bar afterward with my English colleagues at Aperio...

The Brits did pick the perfect day for coming out to San Diego, as heaviest snow in 20 years brings large parts of Britain to a halt.  I suspect many are emailing friends and family with pictures of the sunshine, making themselves unpopular objects of envy in the process :)

Just want to observe, once again, that Styx is the best loud band of all time.  Often a Styx track comes up on my iPod and I don't feel like hearing it, but instead of clicking to the next track I just turn it up, and suddenly it sounds great.  Happened to me today twice, with Man in the Wilderness and the incomparable Castle Walls.  Boom, boom, boom, boom dum da da dum, da da dum dum dum da dum... 

Sign of the times...  Medscape Journal of Medicine says so long but not farewell.  "The Medscape Journal is one element of the Medscape.com Website.  Moving forward, we believe that we can provide the most value to our members by focusing on our role as an aggregator and interpreter of medical information and not as the primary source for original scientific articles, although The Medscape Journal broke new ground and has paved the way for others."  Really they're saying, "we couldn't figure out the business model for being a free online journal".  So be it, IIWII... 

Another sign of the times...  The Pajamas Media Blogging enterprise has collapsed.  For sure, focusing on PJTV seems strange.  Blogging ads totally made sense, even if there wasn't a viable business model in there somewhere...  but a TV station with political videos?  Dead animal. 

OpenTable files for an IPO.  Cool.  Not only that someone is going public *now*, but because I like OpenTable and use them all the time.  Good luck! 

Did you know?  The three sides of Anne Hathaway...  "If Anne Hathaway wins the best actress Oscar next month for her role as a recovering drug addict in Rachel Getting Married, it will be a big upset: Popular wisdom is divided between Meryl Streep for Doubt and Kate Winslet for The Reader, and it's heavily weighted toward Winslet (though Hathaway did recently tie with Streep for a Critic's Choice award). But Hathaway has already bested her fellow nominees in at least one category: She is the canniest image-manager currently working in Hollywood."  She certainly does have a wide range, and has avoided being typecast.. 

CNet is calling the death of Windows Mobile.  Certainly between the Apple iPhone, RIM Blackberry, Google Android, and [now] Palm Pre, the best smartphones are not Windows Mobile -based.  If they ever were... 

Amid all the positive hype about Windows 7, Eric Raymond sounds a warning note: Warmed-over Vista.  "OK, it’s now definite. Windows 7 is gonna suck, and suck hard...  Microsoft is behaving as though it believes that Vista’s problems were nothing but PR, and that by rebranding and spinning up the hype engines they can overcome those.  The results when this strategy collides with reality should be … entertaining, to say the least."  Huh.  I've been hoping those reports about Win 7 were true, and have had a successful experience myself, but Eric [usually] knows what he's talking about... 

Say you have to transport Bighorn Sheep from one inaccessible place to another.  What do you do?  You use a helicopter, of course...  I love it. 

ZooBorn of the day (and cuteness defined): a baby Agouti.  (Of course, you knew what an Agouti was, right?)

 

 
 

Return to the archive.