Blue Ridge Ride o Kick our Ass!

The reports are in, Hung and I are seriously hurting from this killer rider. When we arrived at the departure place we found several other bikers who asked if we'd like to join them.

We decided to take them up on their offer but didn't know what we had gotten into until the ride began.

It was then that we quickly found out that several of them were training for half and full Ironman's. YIKES!! We were out of our league since both Hung and I have been relogated to domestic duties like fatherhood and remodeling. So we had not kept up on our training as these "real" atheletes had.

We knew we were in trouble when we covered the first 20 miles in 1 hour!! That's freakin ridiculous. An average speed of 20 MPH?!? I don't know how I did it. Plus we had not even got to the major Mt. Weather Climb! Thank goodness for my Aeorbars.

By this time Hung was still keeping up but I had fallen behind. Although I managed to keep up on the straight aways, once we hit hills, I got crushed by the other guys who took of into the distance.

It wasn't too long after that that we started the ascent. It was grueling but both of us made it up the incredible Mt. Weather climb. I preferred the slow and steady climb whereas Hung, "with the rice burner engine," took the ascent much faster.

The real pain didn't hit until the next peak at around mile 43. That 1200' climb was the near end of both of us. Eventhough this climb was smaller than the previous one, it was much more painful as we were both completely exhausted. Hung'r was crashing and I would have too if it wasn't for that third ring on my bike. Thank God for the Granny Gear!!

At this point we were at the very end of the pack. We had now been passed by the two girls in our group who were obviously in much better shape than us.

At this point all I could do was look at my odometer and say to myself..."only 10 miles to go...only 9.9 miles to go...only 9.8 milese to go."

After that second killer hill any slight incline made my quads feel like they were going to explode.

We completed the whole 56 mile ride in 4 hours elapsed time, and 3 hours 15 minutes of riding time. According to my Polar watch I burned around 3,000 calories.

That night I went to bed at 8 PM together with Grant. Looks like I'll need to train more before the next time I try the Blue Ridge Challenge.

Blue Ridge Challenge Ride

Hung and I are off to do the Blue Ridge Challenge Ride tomorrow with "the meanest climb you will find in this section of the country." We've done it once and it was tough. It's 56 miles! Below is the Topo Map.

I hope my training with Baby G will have paid off!

Allen Jammin out!

I think the tunes are good Allen but what is going on with the plant in the background? It looks pitiful.

I live under a rock!

My wife tells me I live under a rock as I didn't know about Fergie (see hot picture below). Turns out she is a hottie in the Black Eyed Peas Band and is quite the rage. Both my wife and her cousin say they want to be Fergie because she's cool.


Allison convinced me to by their new song "Don't Phunk With My Heart." For those of you who are also "no longer cool" due to Wife and Kid, go ahead and get the song to feel cool again!

I'm feeling hipper already. Think I'll put on my trend shirt!

(BTW to show how really cool I am, check out the time stamp on this blog entry. Woo hoo....rockin Saturday night for me!)

time shmime

On the shuttle home and I found myself reading an article from wired courtesy of the new google.com/ig. This guy is whacked, but I love it. He argues that time does not exist, a thought most pepole have contemplated at one moment or another. Is he right? Probably not, but interesting enough is the attention he's drawing. Maybe we should send him to World Works?

Close, but no cigar

This is where the eTango world HQ used to sit, a very nice building in a crappy part of town. Read a little about the changes, too bad there aren't more pics.

I love Capitalism!

N.J. College Student Auctions Body Space on EBay. Quite an enterprising young lady! Although I'm not partical to women with "ink." Sex certainly sells.

Awesome day Sailing in San Francisco!

Ahhh, sailing on San Francisco Bay on the most perfect day! Awesome! It was a small crew with me as the skipper. Crew included my dad, Eric Shapiro, Allen, and my cousin Maria Paula who was in all the way from Colombia!

Hey what about organizing that sailing trip in the Carribean? Brad, weren't you supposed to organize that?


We sailed out of Sausalito from Cass Marina where we rented the boat (BTW Cass Marina is great, ask for Louis, she's very nice). From there we went across the bay to Crissy Field, then behind Alcatraz, toward Angel Island, and finally back to Sausalito.

say what

Those not as closely tied to the madness of the googs may have overlooked the fact that yesterday Google launched a new version of the google homepage on google labs. This personalized version of google allows you to view your gmail, weather, stock, news and a few other items a la myyahoo.com. Try it out. My 2 cents is that the product is not where I want to see it yet, but it's still worth investigating. Especially if you use gmail.

Peace!

bay to breakers

In an effort to safely guide us down one of the steepest hills in SF during the mayhem that was Bay to Breakers, Big Al took control of the mothership.

Interesting Story about Economist Steven Levitt

I saw a story on one of the several Fox or MSNBC conservative TV programs about an economist who concluded that one of the factors that led to the decrease in crime in the 1990's was the Roe v. Wade decision. Basically saying that allowing abortion decreased crime. The guy got pummelled for this paper. Turns out he makes all these crazy correlations between events, like if you have a child, a gun, and a swimming pool, your child is 100 times more likely to die in the swimming pool than by the gun.

NY Times wrote an article on him and it's an interesting read. Here's the full story The Probability That a Real-Estate Agent Is Cheating You (and Other Riddles of Modern Life)

Here's an interesting quote from it for any of you who are selling your home.

While negotiating to buy old houses, Levitt found that the seller's agent often encouraged him, albeit cagily, to underbid. This seemed odd: didn't the agent represent the seller's best interest? Then he thought more about the agent's role. Like many other ''experts'' (auto mechanics and stockbrokers come to mind), a
real-estate agent is thought to know his field far better than a lay person. A homeowner is encouraged to trust the agent's information. So if the agent brings in a low offer and says it might just be the best the homeowner can expect, the homeowner tends to believe him. But the key, Levitt determined, lay in the fact that agents ''receive only a small share of the incremental profit when a house sells for a higher value.'' Like a stockbroker churning commissions or a bookie grabbing his vig, an agent was simply looking to make a deal, any deal. So he would push homeowners to sell too fast and too cheap.

Now if Levitt could only measure this effect. Once again, he found a clever mechanism. Using data from more than 50,000 home sales in Cook County, Ill., he compared the figures for homes owned by real-estate agents with those for homes for which they acted only as agents. The agents' homes stayed on the market about 10 days longer and sold for 2 percent more.

- NY Times - The Probability That a Real-Estate Agent Is Cheating You (and Other Riddles of Modern Life)

Reading The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

As many of you know I'm a HUGE fan of Stephen Covey, especially his 7 Habits books. For Christmas Allen got me Stephen's new book The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness .

I got a chance to catch up on reading the book on my return flight from SF yesterday. It has so much valuable insight and explanation that I'm sure I'll continue to refer to it from time to time on the blog as I often do in my personal and business life.

I especially liked the following quote which led me to particular pause and introspection.

One ship drives East and another drives West
With the self same winds that blow.
'Tis the set of the sails,
And not the gales,
That tells us the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate;
As we voyage along through life,
'Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm, or the strife.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Quick trip to Boston

I'm a little behind in my blogging, because I'm posting a picture from my trip to Boston while I'm sitting here in my brother's apartment in San Francisco.

Anyay, my trip to Boston was quite short. However, after work finished and right before it got dark I got to take a nice walk along the Charles River (as Brad suggested) which led to a stroll through Harvard Square.


The Concierge provided a good recommendation for restaurant in Harvard Square. I ate at Harvest Restaurant and it was quite good and bustling with customers.

Boston seems like a nice town. I always enjoy a city that is rich in history. I don't know when I'll be back. I know it definately won't be during the winter!

Another future Saxon!

Just got some wonderful news from the Tafe's. They just announced they are expecting their first baby. God Bless them.

Looks like Baby Grant will have a playmate.

Blog Email Notification

I just signed up all the authors for a Yahoo Group that enables email notification for when someone posts a new blog entry or a comment.

I tried to do this through the Blogger.com setup but they don't have a feature to email several email addresses. It can only email one.

So I had to setup a Yahoo Group, which the blog will send a message to, which will then get sent to everyone on the list.

We'll try it out and you guys can tell me if you like it.

It's helpful with knowing when folks post comments, because those are hard to catch unless you sift back through all the entries.

Excitement in Washingotn DC - White House, Capitol evacuated after airspace violated

Sometimes it's quite scary working downtown in DC. Apparently a Cessna or something violated restricted airspace which forced an evacuation of numerous Govt. and Private buildings in DC.

I heard the fighter jets fly over to intercept the plane but never saw them.

Glad it was nothing major.

Here's the full story.

USATODAY.com - White House, Capitol evacuated after airspace violated

Rodeo in Salem gets unexpected song rendition

This is old news, but as a HUGE fan of Ali G on HBO, I figured some of you may enjoy this.

You must be wondering who Is Ali G? Check it out!

Booyakasha!

Pain

Had the pin pulled from my wrist today, the most pain I have ever experienced to date while living on this planet. I passed out for a minute and woke up being held by the Resident, keeping me from falling out of the chair I was in. Quite a sight, wish I had it on tape. In case you are interested, you can learn more about SCAPHOID FRACTURES here.

I thought I should blog

After not posting for a while I thought I should post something. I could post a description of my drive home last night while having food poisoning but that would probably make everyone sick. I could post my thoughts about this region's traffic, but that has been well covered already. I could post about the reforestation of the east coast, but Brad elloquently covered that topic as well. I know, how about my specialty... movies! While having two young kids has put a real damper on my ability to go to the movies, I do have a Netflix service which provides me plenty of choices for movies, albeit a little dated. Unlike days of old, I stick with strickly DVD versions of movies. No more VHS, although I still have a collection of VHS movies, and no more 8 mm. I currently have almost 300 movies in my rental queue so I have a lot of movies to see. Here are reviews on the movies I have seen recently.

The Incredibles - I really enjoyed this movie, as did Katherine which doesn't happen all the time. It's a fun creative twist on the superhero thing. I recommend seeing it.

Time Bandits - This is a classic. It made its debute in 1981. It has an original storyline and even has a cameo by 007 himself, Sean Connery. It's about a young boy who gets caught up with some some midget employees of the Supreme Being who stole the Supreme Being's map of the universe to travel through time to get rich by being bandits. I loved this movie as a kid and still enjoy it. By the way, Katherine hates this movie and would rather lick the toilet clean than watch it. She didn't see much of the movie so I can't put much weight on her opinion of this one.

Napoleon Dynamite - After my sister-in-law pestered me enough, I finally saw this movie. This movie is very quirky. I enjoyed it because of it's quirkiness. If you enjoy movies that don't fit hollywood's formula for movies then you will like this one.

Alien vs. Predator - Yes, I actually watched this movie and I feel ashamed to admit it. Like the rest of the people who saw this movie, my curiosity got the best of me because I liked the Alien and Predator series of movies and thought, "How bad could it be?" Folks, it's BAD! I found myself routing for the aliens to slice everyone up so the movie would finish.

That's it... the last four movies I've seen from Netflix. If I can't think of anything else to write about in the future, I'll let you know my opinions on more movies. Maybe I'll come up with some new twist on this region's traffic. I did just get the Dulles Toll Road Toll Increase flyer in the mail today explaining how the increase will make all of our lives perfect. I bet that could spark some juicy posts.

Katherine just read this and thinks this post is really lame. Oh well!

ORACLE CORP. / ON THE RECORD: Larry Ellison

Great article about my main man. Did I mention I sold tickets to his Ex a few weeks ago for Sting?



ORACLE CORP. / ON THE RECORD: Larry Ellison

Kentucky Derby on Yahoo! News Photos

Hmm, I've been to the Kentucky Derby back in the days when I lived in Cincy.

However, I don't remember it being this much fun Kentucky Derby on Yahoo! News Photos

Then again, that day is a bit hazy.

Funny Comic from USA Today

I thought this was funny...and appropriate for our Blog.

A Good Listen During the Day - 630 WMAL

When I'm driving around from one office to another I like to listen to talk radio (shows I must be getting old, although I've been listening to talk radio ever since the first Gulf War, which means I was old at about 16).

Anyway, I like to listen to it to keep current on things. More so to hear the under reported news and stories, as opposed to hearing the opinions. Like Rush Limbaugh, he's kind of obnoxious, but does cover some interesting stories. Sean Hannity is a better and not as obnoxious, but sometimes he stays on stories TOO long. Like that dumb runaway bride story. WHO CARES about her! Wish they'd end that story.

Have a listen at 630 WMAL

Anyone making DVDs?

I found a cool site that deciphers much of the DVD buring confusions, called VideoHelp.com - Guide, How To, Tutorial and Article list, and it makes all the difference in the world to check it out. I have found that I only use DVD Shrink for making "backups" and that it works well, and is free.

speed me up scotty

Google tends to do a sub par job of getting the word out on their latest offerings so thought I'd clue you all into the Google Web accelerator, just released yesterday. Test it out when you get the chance.

Going to Beantown!

I'm heading to Beantown tomorrow for a quick business trip. I'll return the following day.

I'm hoping to catch up with Beth Kassiola while I'm there. She's an old SF friend.

If you have any suggestions on what I should see during my extremely short stay let me know.

Great Tool

Well, in an effort to contribute, I wanted to share a software tool I found called Internet Download Accelerator. It allows for a 30 day free trial, and helps download those larger .iso files than have a tendancy to fail during the middle, plus it really helps files download fast with multiple threads connected to the source.

No Luck Recruiting a Female Author to our Blog

In an effort to include diversity in the posts to this blog I attempted to recruit a female author unsuccessfully. Like most females, they enjoy reading it, but don't want to contribute.

Here's what she said:

I had a great time reading through both blogs, especially the one by Grant. So cute! I think, however, I will be like Allison and just be a reader for now; I get freaked out about the idea of posting anything on the internet b/c it makes me wonder who's reading all about my comings and goings, thoughts, etc. But I sure do like to read it when others do it!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

- Anonymous

Finally my Proof on the Inefficiency of Toll Collection

Our dispute over Toll Roads may have digressed a bit. First I want to clarify that I am not against collecting money to pay for the roads. But I get pissed when it's done inefficiently (as is the case of toll roads) or if the road is already receiving other tax dollars in addition to the tolls, or if the tolls don't even go to paying for the road (like in the case of the toll hike for the Dulles Toll Road which is BS!).

Finally I found the proof I was looking for in this article The Administrative and Compliance Cost of manual Highway Toll Collection

Here's the Exec Summary:

The administrative and compliance cost of the US income tax system has been estimated at between five and seven percent of revenue, we estimate that toll collection costs to be between 15.3% and 41.6% of revenue during rush hour and between 11.3% and 19.1% over an entire weekday.

So Brad, if you like paying $2 of your proposed $10 toll to directly to the attendant, then go ahead. I'd prefer to pay just $0.70 cents and have my $10 toll lowered to $8.70 by having it collected through either a Gas Tax or the Income Tax.

Which is a nice transition to my commentary on the tax code and getting rid of the Income Tax. Brad, I think you'll agree with this Consumption based approach to tax collection.

bigger is better

if you're tired of all the tinyurl.com ripoffs that are floating around the internet, try hugeurl.com because bigger is better!

VA Fuel Tax Refund??

I love this one. Turns out, if you buy gas for your boat, you can get a refund on the fuel tax for those gas purchases. Which makes sense since the boat isn't being used to drive on any roads.

However, who the frack has time to itemize all their boat gas receipts and submit them the DMV??? Another clear example of VERY, VERY poorly written legislation that isn't really meant to benefit the boat owner, but instead burden them.

VA DMV: Citizen Services: Fuel Tax Refund

BTW, $0.175 per gallon tax in VA on gas. For those of you that don't have Excel, that's a 7.44% tax. Just add that to your total tax rate!

Va. Board Raises Fees On Dulles Toll Road (washingtonpost.com)

This is BS. They are doubling the Toll on the Dulles Toll road! $0.50 cents at each gate now!

Va. Board Raises Fees On Dulles Toll Road (washingtonpost.com)

Here's the best part. It's not even for the damn road!! It's to pay for the project to bring Metrorail out to the area. What the hell???

This makes no sense to me. Can't they sell Govt. Bonds or something to finance that. Doesn't VA have a $1 Billion surplus this year??

I'm still researching about Toll roads to find evidence that will enlighten Brad as to how grossly inefficient they are as a source of tax revenue.

I already get Taxed at the gas pump for the road, why do I have to pay again!! How about they put gas stations on the Toll road that don't have the Gas Tax included in the sales price. Yea right. We'd never see that.

Do you ever think that we are essentially triple or quadrouple taxed sometimes. We get taxes taken out of our paycheck, then we get taxed when we buy gas, then we get taxed when we go on the toll road.

Oh yea, here's a fourth tax. The VA State Police like to setup a speedtrap through the Fasttoll lane. The posted speed limit is 35 MPH there. Yet I've NEVER EVER seen anyone slow down to that speed. So, WHACK. Tax number four as they shoot fish in a barrel pulling over people in the Fasttoll lane.

I've got to stop blogging and start writing my state represenetatives.

N.Y. to D.C. On the Chinatown Bus

To my knowledge, Allen is the only one brave enought to have ridden the Chinatown Bus from NY to DC.

On the way to New York on Dragon Coach, our driver -- a chain smoker who delivered a one-word answer to a passenger's request that he observe the no smoking sign: "driver" -- saw a traffic jam developing on the ramp to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. So he eased the bus over the curb, drove up a muddy embankment and squeezed onto the adjacent ramp to Route 50. Then he turned to his passengers with a huge smile and said, "Ahh! Better!"

Isn't that how a bus turned over one time?? I don't think I'll be taking that bus anytime soon.

Added Author Profile Pictures

For those of you that like looking at your mug shot everytime you logon, I've posted info about the Authors to the right. Unfortunately most of you haven't filled out your profile at all. None the less, there's a link from your picture to your profile.

I ran out of time to get pictures for Smack and Austin so both of you, post the picture you like as a blog entry, and I'll source it from there. Same goes with those of you who don't like your the picture I posted.

In the meantime, for Austin and Smack I've replaced your pictures with Newt Gingrich, since I saw him last week in the Nordstroms.

Welcome Guest Blog Author Brad!

This is very exciting and a historic day.

Some, like Austin and Hung, said it could not be done. But I have proof (as evidenced by the test entry below) that Brad has completed the signup process and is now able to post Blog entries to Big Al's friends blog.

Even more advanced, Brad has installed the Google toolbar so he can easily make Blog entries. This is truly amazing and a welcome addition.

Now both Brad, Austin, and Smack are all tied for 1 lonesome blog entry!

I hope all will post more. For now Hung is da shizzle Blogger (bet Snoop hasn't thought of those two words together).

Congresswoman Maloney will host a nurse-in on Capitol

My wife sent me this. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Democrat promoting breastfeeding. Both Allison and I are big supporters of it and I think it's ridiculous that some places actually kick women out of their establishments for breastfeeding.

You can see more info at The Breastfeeding.com Message Boards: CT Nurse-In at washington DC, Please look and come!

Although I think the proposed legislation goes too far, like providing tax incentives for business that establish private lactaion areas. My issue with perks like this is it just further complicates the Tax code and the only businesses that will benefit are huge ones. Do you think the the little 6 person computer company in some obscure office space in Tysons is going to have a conversation like

Business Owner: Is there anyway I can pay less taxes?
Accountant: Hmm. You could create a private lacation room.

Ridiculous. But some of the other proposed parts are good. Here are the higlights.

(1) to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding by new mothers,
(2) to provide tax incentives for businesses that establish private, lactation areas in the workplace,
(3) to provide for a performance standard for breast pumps, and
(4) to allow breastfeeding equipment to be tax deductible for families.

WHO: Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
Audrey J. Naylor, MD, DrPH, FAAP, FABM
Chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee
Others to be announced

WHEN: 2:00pm
Thursday, May 5, 2005

WHERE: Cannon Terrace
New Jersey and Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC
INCLEMENT WEATHER ROOM: TBA