Guilty Pleasures

So it has been a long but rapidly-moving day today. I have been driving the value chain by performing mission-critical activities loading a lot of data files, which has incentivized me to enhance my knowledge base led me to surf the Internet.

And that's how I stumbled across FuggingItUp and its equally evil twin Fametracker.

FuggingItUp is two gals who comb the Getty Images archives for tragic images of the Hollywood demimonde (or is that hemi-demi-semimonde).

I think the best part about FuggingItUp is that it makes fun of people I've never heard of. It's one thing to rip on Nicole Kidman or Lil' Kim (because where's the sport in that?) but quite another to devote multiple columns to Bai Ling and the Pelson Twins.

Fametracker is just like FuggingItUp except without the photos. But more dudes. Except for Ben Affleck. And Aaron Carter, who is a girl.

Is That A Giant Piece Of Spam In Your Mouth Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

Another Mt. Tam Death March

Another ride on Mt. Tam today. Nothing too exciting, the usual stuff: Old Railroad Grade up, then Eldridge Grade to Hoo Koo E Koo and Tenderfoot. 20 miles RT, maybe? Mostly a proving run for a new stem.

Pace was solid, not spectacular, but I haven't been on a good climb in weeks. 59 minutes to West Point Inn. No rest, then another 10 minutes to the top of Eldridge Grade. I heard a guy (who blew past me when my stem came loose) say that he made it to the top of Eldridge in 56 minutes. Even if you take 5 minutes off for (1) re-tightening the stem and (2) incessant twiddling with a sinking seatpost, he still whupped me. He also said that his heart rate never broke 120 on the way up. Fucker.

Tenderfoot was its usual rooty self. I give myself a 7 for the run: choked on one set of roots, major dab on another, but cleaned everything I should have cleaned.

Total ride time: 02:20

Treated myself to new tires: WTB WeirWolf 2.3's. Only installed one of 'em backwards.

Downieville Pics

Shot #1, in which I look totally cool	Shot #2, in which I look even way cooler

The rain on Sunday, which ended the adventure	The River View Cafe, right across the river from the gallows

Kezar Update

Best 400m: 1:34
Best 800m: 3:29

No personal best this week, but I wasn't going for one. The good news is that I consistently ran faster than my (entirely theoretical) 5k race pace of 3:40. Not bad for an "active rest" training session.

Sorry for the tardy posts. I owe you (1) pictures from Downieville and (2) a discussion of teenage boys in Speedos. You won't get either here except to say that teenage boys in Speedos all seem to know the theme to The Family Guy by heart. You haven't lived until you've heard an entire locker room of wet, half-naked teenage boys sing that song in unison.

I've Got Two Words For You: Nipple Abrasion

Hola, amigos. I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I've been a busy, busy man. Last weekend I was kicking it in Santa Fe (more photos from that later), and this weekend I'm heading up to Downieville to ride the world-famous Downieville Downhill. In between there has been a boatload of work.

I have swim practice on Wednesday nights, but this week I was thwarted by a 90-minute phone call from the client's IT department. The server for the application I manage blew up, and the application needed to be rebuilt. So, there I was, standing in front of St. Ignatius Prep, looking at teenage boys in Speedos change their clothes on the football field,* and talking about rebuilding applications.

Needless to say, I missed swim practice. I headed home and went for a run instead. As you may remember, last time I did a long run I got as far as 32nd Avenue & Irving. This time I made it all the way to Ocean Beach, which is just past 49th Avenue on Irving. Round trip distance is approximately 8.4 miles, which is by far the longest run I've ever done in my entire life. It took me 38 minutes to reach Ocean Beach, which is approximately an 8:38 pace. I made the mistake of taking Judah Street back, which is significantly hillier than Irving. The return trip took 48 minutes, which is an average, um, 10:54 pace. Ouch. My only consolation is that the return trip has a net 500 foot elevation gain.

On my return, I noticed that I had suffered a little-mentioned but pernicious side effect of long runs. That's right: nipple abrasion.

I think this is one place where the gals have it over us. Women can wear jog bras. But what's a guy to do? Wear a manssiere? Or just go for the Band-Aids?



* More on that later, I promise.

This Is A Public Service Announcement

Kiwanis Cabin, Sandia Crest, NM (October 10, 2004)

Deenie is a very bad girl.

Love at the Albuquerque Balloon Festival

Weekend Update

Sorry for the late/short post. Work has been alternately frustrating and infuriating. Sometimes I feel like I work with fourteen year old boys. Remember when you were fourteen and you thought it was really cool to answer questions in the most limited way possible and not to share information that you know is important? Yeah, that's what work today is like.

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I know Catchdubs will think I'm a total asshat, but I am finding myself in agreement with a recent federal appellate court decision, which held that there is no de minimis exception for copyright violations of a sound recording.

While I'm not prepared to mount an extensive defense of my position, suffice it to say that the benefits of a bright-line test and the following key points assuage my fears that the ruling will not kill hip hop:

Artists who wish to sample can obtain a compulsory license for the sampled material

A de minimis standard exists for infringement of a song copyright (as opposed to the sound recording). Therefore, artists are free to quote other performances without fear of infringment

If I read the opinion correctly, sound recordings made before 1971 are not copyrighted.

As a practical matter, I think this will encourage sampling artists either to mine pre-1971 material or to dig even deeper into crates for material so obscure that the copyright holder cannot be identified. From here on out, any lazy artist caught sampling Diana Ross (I'm looking at you, P. Diddy) gets what he deserves.

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The team rode at Tamarancho on Saturday, and, as usual, someone got hurt. At least this time it wasn't me. Coach Aaron got a nasty arm and head bruise when he handcuffed himself between two trees. Needless to say we didn't do a second loop.

Sunday was more swimming in Novato. I really shouldn't have done chest and triceps on Saturday afternoon....

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Bonus/Embarrassing Find of the Week:

My car has heated seats. I've owned this car since November 30, 2000, and I only just now figured that out. I could have sworn the car didn't come with the Cold Weather Package.

Track Night

Last night's workout was all about pace. Coach Jay wanted us to establish a realistic 5k pace and run at that pace all night, regardless of distance. Since I haven't run a 5k in nearly ten years, I guessed at my pace, a 07:30 mile, or about 23:00 for a 5k. For you math-minded types out there, that is a 01:50 split.

I'm not so run-geeked up yet that I'm tracking my pace on a stopwatch, so fortunately for me three other people also were running a 01:50 split. My goal was to track about ten feet behind them.

Their pace was consistent, so it worked out fine.

On to the results:

Best 400m: 01:40 (we weren't supposed to break pace on the last 400m, but I did it anyway)
Best 800m: 03:37 (my pace group slacked off that interval, so I pushed ahead of them)
Best 1200m: 05:30*


* Personal best