Archive: July 9, 2010

<<< July 8, 2010

Home

July 10, 2010 >>>


TDF stage 6 / sprint / Cavendish notches another, Cancellara, Hushovd keep jerseys

Friday,  07/09/10  10:40 PM

(blogged from a Marie Calendar's in Merced, driving to Bear Valley for the Death Ride)

I watched today's TDF stage while driving (!!, Tivo to Slingbox to laptop*), and it was a pretty boring one; again we had a long flat stage, and again a bunch sprint, and again a great leadout from Mark Renshaw took Mark Cavendish to a sprint win.  Good for Cav, he's back on form, and it makes the green jersey competition interesting with Thor Hushovd keeping the lead and Alessandro Petacchi also in the hunt.  We'll see how many of the sprinters stay in with the tour as we move into the Alps tomorrow...

Speaking of tomorrow, I won't be able to watch as I will be otherwise occupied, but it should setup nicely for a breakaway win, with just enough climbing to effect a selection, but not enough to tempt the GC men to try anything, especially with a really serious mountain stage on offer Sunday.  Cheers and see you Sunday!

[ Tour de France 2010: all postsindex ]

* BTW I must tell you, I have an HD Slingbox attached to my HD Tivo, and the picture on my laptop is pretty amazing, even transmitted through a Sprint cell modem while driving.  This technology is awesome :)

 

You want your phone back? Our haircuts are half price today...

Friday,  07/09/10  10:45 PM

This you will not believe...  so I pulled off into a truck stop while driving up Route 99, had a bite to eat and did some work, and as I drive away I have that *bad* feeling like a left something behind... yep, left my phone.  Yikes!

So I go back to the diner, and check the booth in which I'd sat, and my phone is gone.  Crud.  So I find my waitress.

"Hi, did you happen to find my phone?
"Um, I might have found a phone, what did it look like?

(what!  I was just here...  you know you have my phone...)

"It's a black Palm Pre, c'mon I really need it back...
"Huh.  Well today we have a special on haircuts, half price, would you like one?

(what!  haircuts, WTF?)

"Haircut!?  What about my phone?  I really need my phone...
"I just thought maybe you'd like a haircut... they're half price today!

(I'm thinking this girl is crazy, I have to be nice or I might never see my phone back.)

"I. Really. Need. My. Phone.   Please?

To make a weird story short, after five minutes I did finally get my phone back, and I did not have to get a haircut.  Whew.  On the road again...

 

on the road... driving to the Death Ride

Friday,  07/09/10  10:50 PM

Just hanging out in a Marie Calendar's in Merced, driving to Bear Valley for the Death Ride, and thought I'd make a quick filter pass...

Today's technology for being "on the road" is quite amazing; today while driving I was monitoring events via my trusty Palm Pre, email and texts and voice, and a couple of times pulled off into a truck stop to eat and work.  Managed to get some important stuff done interleaved with making progress.  (And almost managed to get a haircut :)  On the road...

I am curiously unprepared mentally for the Death Ride tomorrow... you would think proper psychological preparation for such a nasty ride is essential - 130 miles and 18,000', spread over five mountain passes over 8,000' each - and you would be right.  Maybe it's that I have so much else going on in my life at the moment, or maybe it's because I've done this two years previously, and so I know what I'm in for...  we'll see how it goes! 

Tomorrow is a big day in the Tour de France, and also in the World Cup, with the third place game between Germany and Uruguay.  I'd have to pick Germany to win - they looked great until their loss to Spain - but I'm going to be rooting for Uruguay as the underdogs... 

Have you been following Paul the prognosticating octopus?  He's picking Germany tomorrow, and also Spain to win the World Cup final Sunday.  Stay tuned :) 

Related: BoingBoing notes the end of science reporting at CNN.  Of course many of us have felt CNN stopped reporting period some time ago...

Here's a helpful article: The best South African wines to drink while watching the World Cup.  I will be driving tomorrow night so I will not partake; but maybe for the final on Sunday... 

Evolution in action?  Two new fish species found walking at the site of the Gulf oil spill.  They are called pancake batfish, by the way, how great is that? 

Scott "Dilbert" Adams continues his string of thought-provoking posts as he considers Problems.  "I like problems. Where there are problems there are opportunities...  Please answer any one of these:  What problem does your company's product try to solve?  What is the biggest problem for people in your profession?  What is the biggest problem in your industry?  What is the biggest problem/constraint in your current project?"  Great stuff. 

Facebook have killed their gift shop, apparently a $100M baby.  You might be thinking the same as me, what, Facebook had a gift shop?  Who knew?  Virtual gifts

Here's a great question for me, while a on a long drive: What's the fastest you've driven?  I'll give you my answer on Sunday :)

 

 
 

Return to the archive.