A few years ago my sister gave me the 4th season of the Trailer Park Boys as a gift (Christmas or my Birthday, I can't remember - sorry). When I first tried to watch it, it never really made too much of an impression on me. With the new TBP movie, Count Down to Liquor Day coming out and all the previews on the Canadian web sites that I frequent, I gave the 4th season a more serious look. I've gotta say, this show is one of the funniest things you'll ever see!
Caveat - If you are my Mom, and you're reading this post, now is probably a good time to stop reading, or at least, proceed at your own risk!
The story line of this show is pretty simple, at the start of each season some combination of Ricky, Julian and Bubbles gets out of jail. They then go back home to their trailer park (Sunnyvale) in Nova Scotia. They then spend a couple episodes with Julian pontificating about how he's going to go clean, get a real job and not go back to jail. By episode three, Ricky is back to growing dope in one of the trailers in the park. They then spend the rest of the season trying to avoid getting busted by Jim Lahey, the drunk trailer park supervisor. By the final episode they're getting busted by the cops and heading back to jail.
When you watch the show, you're reminded of the differences between Canadian and American senses of humor. Just my impression, but most American comedies are all about relating to the characters and laughing along with them as they go through life. Canadian comedies are about something different, they're about laughing at some sorry SOB as he goes through life. The Trailer Park Boys fit this perfectly. You don't laugh along with these guys, you laugh at them as they grow dope, steal and re-sell meat from the grocery store, open up a used furniture store where they sell stolen furniture (stolen from a hotel and a government office), make pornos starring people from the trailer park, steal shopping carts from one mall and sell them to the other, etc. All while trying to out fox the permanently drunk Jim Lahey and his side kick, burger boy Randy.
The other thing that you're reminded of when you watch this show is how things are a little different in Canada. Since I've been watching this show I'm back to swearing a lot more, urinating in public as appropriate, and having a general sense of dislike for The Man.
If you haven't ever watched this show, I highly recommend giving it a shot. After watching season 4, I hit Amazon and bought the entire series. Definitely money well spent.
Here are some funnier clips from the show:
After dishonestly letting Bubbles take the fall for his own work of burning down his dad's trailer, Ricky is convinced by Julian that they should do Bubbles a favor by doing what he want's to do for the day. Starts out as badminton, ends in playing space.
Shit Hawks, they're flying in low:
Never Cry Shitwolf; Lahey thinks he has the boys nailed, it doesn't quite turn out that way:
Problems with the cable guy:
Lahey and Shit Moths:
Ricky destroys Lahey's place over a chicken:
5 swear words you didn't know:
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Finally!
Once upon a time there was a Pacific Northwest college football program that went all the way to the top. The Washington Huskies were national champs as recently as 1991. There have been some good years since then; Rose Bowl wins in 1992 and 2001, ending Miami's 58 game home winning streak in dominating fashion, and numerous other dramatic victories.
There were of course some rocky roads that the Huskies have traveled recently. A two year probation from the NCAA in 1993. This was followed by the ultimate axis of evil; namely Barbara Hedges and Rick Neuheisel. Normally when people who are as devious and incompetent as these two put their heads together, the end result is the end of a civilization, mass destruction, or something similar. In this case, Washington football fans took one for the rest of the planet as they watched their beloved program turned into a laughing stock.
Sure, Slick Rick took the team to a Rose Bowl win in 2001, but once he had to depend on his own recruits and management of said players, it was all over. Crappy players and even poorer discipline of said players. There are a few articles out there on the internet that detail some of the complete lack of human decency that existed in some of Neuheisel's recruits, and even worse in how he turned a blind eye to it all. I'll leave that for you to find on your own.
No worries though, with Rick fired just as the NCAA was about to nail him to the wall (note he left Colorado in exactly the same sort of fashion); the ultimate slack ass, Ty Willingham would restore order and take the sleeping giant back to the top. Too bad it never worked out that way. 14 straight losses and the worst ranked defense in the entire county later, Ty finally got his marching orders. Ty's reign was kinda like being a stock market investor over the past couple years; just when you thought it couldn't possibly get any worse, sure enough it did. And that didn't happen once or twice; it happened on a weekly, or even daily basis.
Finally at the end of last season, Washington hired a guy in Steve Sarkisian who we all knew was the right guy for the job. The only question was how long would it take for him to turn around the train wreck that Willingham left behind.
With the Huskies starting out their season against perennial power house LSU, anyone who had been paying attention for the last few years expected another 56-0 beatdown; just like the one that USC put on the Huskies last season. Even worse, it was all going to unfold on national television. Funny enough, the Dawgs only lost to LSU by 8. Realistically, with some better tackling, they might have even won the game. All of a sudden one began to quickly question whether they needed to change their expectations for this team. Last season while going win-less in 12 games, Husky fans learned that they should just be happy seeing their team not get blown out. We all knew we were going to lose, but at least maybe we could keep the losing margin under 10. Now you had to wonder if you should start being a bit upset when the team didn't win. Maybe even expect them to win. Even be a critical when the team made some mistakes because who knows, maybe one or two less mistakes and we wouldn't all have to accept losing any more.
Week two brought Idaho to town, no big deal, the Huskies won pretty easily, ending their 15 game losing streak. Give Sarkisian and his coaching staff credit though. If Ty were still running the show, this would have probably also been a loss.
Last weekend, week 3, brought the big, bad, 3rd ranked USC Trojans to town. Before kick-off I joked with Carol that she might want to get a diaper ready for her USC loving brother Joe because the Dawgs were about to break his heart. Unless you've been living under a rock somewhere, you realize that Washington in fact beat USC 16-13! How crazy is that? Sure, USC was without their starting quarterback, but hey what can you say? Rather than snatching defeat from the jaws of victory as this team has done so many times over the past few seasons, the Huskies actually drove down the field with the game on the line and kicked a field goal to win the game.
Up next Stanford. I kinda laugh when people speculate that the Huskies are going to have a let down after beating USC last weekend. These folks obviously have no idea what it's like to lose 15 football games in a row. It's impossible for this team to ever get too high on themselves. They've seen things as bad as they can possibly be. They are the team that went a whole season without winning a game. They know what's out there waiting for them if they ever even consider believing their own press clippings. Let's just hope that Sarkisian can pilot this thing all the way to a bowl game this season.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Time for Action
This is going to be the week when my riding finally gets back onto a regular schedule.
On the plus side of things, my eating has been much better the past couple weeks. I'm down from 188 to somewhere around 183. I've still got a long way to go, but I've definitely made a good start. Most import is healthy eating. Losing some extra weight is nice, but certainly not the primary goal.
I also spent two and half hours on a nice slow ride today. Up the coast to Leucadia, where I ran into Wells, one of my team-mates. He was riding south at that point, so I turned around and rode back south to Del Mar with him. We also passed the one and only Matt Marshall on our way back south. Nice guy, but he's got to get himself a better looking team kit. Something white and red, with a few yellow stripes are what all the chicks are digging these days, or at least that's what I'm told.
On the riding front I've been pretty regular with getting out to the Saturday SDBC Club ride, but I haven't been doing anything else. i.e. no base miles, no aerobic endurance, and in general very limited fitness. Now that work is winding down a bit, it's time to start making time to get out on the bike and get my aerobic base back.
I don't know about everyone else out there, but nothing frustrates me more than the feeling of having no aerobic base. It means that when you do get on your bike the littlest amount of effort causes your heart rate to quickly climb. Also, when you do ride hard, your heart rate races right past your lactate threshold and pegs at or near your maximum heart rate. I can't tell you how many times on the SDBC ride I look down and see that my heart rate is up around 195 (my max). If I were in shape it would be somewhere between 175 and 185.
Which then leads to the catch 22 of not being motivated to ride. I'm not motivated to ride because I'm frustrated about how far my fitness has fallen, plus when I ride my bike I see first hand how slow I need to ride to keep my heart rate under control. Yet, the only way to get it better is to ride.
Anyway, enough excuses, it's time for action. This week my goal is the following:
M - day off
T - 1 hour of endurance
W - 30 mins. of speed
Th - 2.5 hours of endurance
F - off (maybe do some weights)
Sa - 1 hour endurance
Su - 2 hours endurance
Let's see how I make out.
On the plus side of things, my eating has been much better the past couple weeks. I'm down from 188 to somewhere around 183. I've still got a long way to go, but I've definitely made a good start. Most import is healthy eating. Losing some extra weight is nice, but certainly not the primary goal.
I also spent two and half hours on a nice slow ride today. Up the coast to Leucadia, where I ran into Wells, one of my team-mates. He was riding south at that point, so I turned around and rode back south to Del Mar with him. We also passed the one and only Matt Marshall on our way back south. Nice guy, but he's got to get himself a better looking team kit. Something white and red, with a few yellow stripes are what all the chicks are digging these days, or at least that's what I'm told.
On the riding front I've been pretty regular with getting out to the Saturday SDBC Club ride, but I haven't been doing anything else. i.e. no base miles, no aerobic endurance, and in general very limited fitness. Now that work is winding down a bit, it's time to start making time to get out on the bike and get my aerobic base back.
I don't know about everyone else out there, but nothing frustrates me more than the feeling of having no aerobic base. It means that when you do get on your bike the littlest amount of effort causes your heart rate to quickly climb. Also, when you do ride hard, your heart rate races right past your lactate threshold and pegs at or near your maximum heart rate. I can't tell you how many times on the SDBC ride I look down and see that my heart rate is up around 195 (my max). If I were in shape it would be somewhere between 175 and 185.
Which then leads to the catch 22 of not being motivated to ride. I'm not motivated to ride because I'm frustrated about how far my fitness has fallen, plus when I ride my bike I see first hand how slow I need to ride to keep my heart rate under control. Yet, the only way to get it better is to ride.
Anyway, enough excuses, it's time for action. This week my goal is the following:
M - day off
T - 1 hour of endurance
W - 30 mins. of speed
Th - 2.5 hours of endurance
F - off (maybe do some weights)
Sa - 1 hour endurance
Su - 2 hours endurance
Let's see how I make out.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Paleo Man Rides Again
I'm back on the Paleo Diet. My eating has really fallen off the rails the past few months. It hasn't been helped by all the late work hours, but more than anything, I simply need to get off all the sugar and complex carbohydrates. I'm back up around the 190 pound mark, which is pretty tough to take, especially every morning as I try to squeeze into my pants.
For those not aware, a few years ago I started eating like Paleo Man. At the time I weighed about 195. I had recently had my ass handed to me on the Boulevard Road Race portion of the San Diego Omnium and knew a couple of things:
1. I couldn't expect to climb hills, even as a cat 5 if I was going to weigh in at 195.
2. There was lots of good buzz around the performance benefits of Joe Friel's Paleo Diet for Athletes book. I figured it was at least worth a shot.
After 3 months or so of eating like Paleo Man I was down to around 170 and was riding much stronger than ever. Getting your body running off the sort of food it was designed/evolved (which ever one works best for you) to run on can make a huge difference in your overall performance, particularly when working at an aerobic heart rate. For anyone considering trying this diet out, I strongly advise that you are not going to perform well for the first week or two as your body adjusts.
I kinda fell of the Paleo bandwagon about halfway through the 2007 racing season, when I allowed myself to get way over-trained. The sort of sugar urges I had at the time were insatiable and I saw the Paleo Diet fall by the way side. That was my first full year of racing and training. I didn't have a good handle on what sort of training load my body could take, or have any good sense for reading when I was becoming over-trained; so rather than going into the over-training valley only to the point I could recover from, I fell all the way to the bottom of the canyon and crashed in a fiery wreck. Now that I know myself a lot better, I'm not expecting to fall into the same whole again.
For those not aware, a few years ago I started eating like Paleo Man. At the time I weighed about 195. I had recently had my ass handed to me on the Boulevard Road Race portion of the San Diego Omnium and knew a couple of things:
1. I couldn't expect to climb hills, even as a cat 5 if I was going to weigh in at 195.
2. There was lots of good buzz around the performance benefits of Joe Friel's Paleo Diet for Athletes book. I figured it was at least worth a shot.
After 3 months or so of eating like Paleo Man I was down to around 170 and was riding much stronger than ever. Getting your body running off the sort of food it was designed/evolved (which ever one works best for you) to run on can make a huge difference in your overall performance, particularly when working at an aerobic heart rate. For anyone considering trying this diet out, I strongly advise that you are not going to perform well for the first week or two as your body adjusts.
I kinda fell of the Paleo bandwagon about halfway through the 2007 racing season, when I allowed myself to get way over-trained. The sort of sugar urges I had at the time were insatiable and I saw the Paleo Diet fall by the way side. That was my first full year of racing and training. I didn't have a good handle on what sort of training load my body could take, or have any good sense for reading when I was becoming over-trained; so rather than going into the over-training valley only to the point I could recover from, I fell all the way to the bottom of the canyon and crashed in a fiery wreck. Now that I know myself a lot better, I'm not expecting to fall into the same whole again.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Bit by a Dog Yesterday
Yesterday as I walked down the hall of my building, some stupid chick's dog attacked me. It was pretty straight forward, I entered one of the exterior doors and started walking down one of the hallways. Before entering the complex, I offered to let her and her dog exit. They weren't trying to exit and were just standing there, so I started walking down the hall. As I passed the two of them I heard a bark, sensed the dog was going to do something, looked down at my arm and saw it hanging there with it's teeth in me.
A few thoughts on this:
1. Normally my reflexes are pretty quick, but in this case I didn't even flinch before the dog hit me. Probably because I'm so used to walking by dog owners in this complex and having their damned dogs start barking at me. When I walked by and heard the barking, I expected things to end there. In this case, not so lucky.
2. From now on whenever one of these dog owners in my complex has a dog that is clearly not under control and is barking at me I'm going to punt it into orbit.
It seems like things are going to be okay. I've got one puncture from where the dog's teeth went into my arm, and a few scratches. I went to the urgent care and got some antibiotics. My Tetanus shot from my over the bars crash at Ontario is still active, so I didn't need another one of them.
A few thoughts on this:
1. Normally my reflexes are pretty quick, but in this case I didn't even flinch before the dog hit me. Probably because I'm so used to walking by dog owners in this complex and having their damned dogs start barking at me. When I walked by and heard the barking, I expected things to end there. In this case, not so lucky.
2. From now on whenever one of these dog owners in my complex has a dog that is clearly not under control and is barking at me I'm going to punt it into orbit.
It seems like things are going to be okay. I've got one puncture from where the dog's teeth went into my arm, and a few scratches. I went to the urgent care and got some antibiotics. My Tetanus shot from my over the bars crash at Ontario is still active, so I didn't need another one of them.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Randy Clark Passes - One Less Good Guy
Randy Clark passed away yesterday (8/9/2009).
I met Randy when he started working at B&L Bike and Sport, one of my favorite bike shops. When I first met him, it was around the time that I bought my Specialized E5 frame and had B&L build it up with Campy Record parts. My first impression was that he didn't really fit in at B&L. B&L is a bit of a hip, fast moving place. Randy was an older (59 this year) guy with frizzy hair and an unpolished look. When he offered to do my fitting, I was kinda thinking to myself, sure I'll let you, but I'm not sure I have a lot of confidence in what's about to happen. Randy proved to be the best guy I've ever met in the world of San Diego cycling.
For my fitting; I got on my bike, pedaled for a while on the trainer, Randy felt my back and hips as I spun, he made a few quick adjustments, and I left with the best bike fit I've ever had. I soon came to respect Randy as one of the most knowledgeable, honest, earnest, inspired, and enthusiastic people I've met. When I first got on my bike after my accident, I again had Randy do a fitting for me. He could see for himself first hand just how sad a state I was in, yet he came right out and asked me if I wanted to come out and ride with his Big City Velo team as they rode up the coast.
Big City Velo was a local San Diego cycling team that Randy put together and backed. He had some help from some local sponsors like Canari and Leader Bikes, but at the end of the day; Randy was the guy who made it all happen.
Less than a month ago I got an email that the San Diego velodrome was putting on a benefit race for Randy. That was when I first learned that he had cancer. It started only a few months ago when he had a melanoma removed from his nose. A couple months later he wasn't feeling well, went to the doctor and discovered that the cancer had spread to his liver. And a month or so later, he's gone.
I know that there aren't too many people who read this blog, which is kinda sad, not for me, but for Randy; because I don't see too many tributes out there to him right now. He's a guy who deserves to be recognized as one of the truly good people who made this world a better place. Randy was the sort of person there aren't near enough of on this planet. He will be missed big time.
I met Randy when he started working at B&L Bike and Sport, one of my favorite bike shops. When I first met him, it was around the time that I bought my Specialized E5 frame and had B&L build it up with Campy Record parts. My first impression was that he didn't really fit in at B&L. B&L is a bit of a hip, fast moving place. Randy was an older (59 this year) guy with frizzy hair and an unpolished look. When he offered to do my fitting, I was kinda thinking to myself, sure I'll let you, but I'm not sure I have a lot of confidence in what's about to happen. Randy proved to be the best guy I've ever met in the world of San Diego cycling.
For my fitting; I got on my bike, pedaled for a while on the trainer, Randy felt my back and hips as I spun, he made a few quick adjustments, and I left with the best bike fit I've ever had. I soon came to respect Randy as one of the most knowledgeable, honest, earnest, inspired, and enthusiastic people I've met. When I first got on my bike after my accident, I again had Randy do a fitting for me. He could see for himself first hand just how sad a state I was in, yet he came right out and asked me if I wanted to come out and ride with his Big City Velo team as they rode up the coast.
Big City Velo was a local San Diego cycling team that Randy put together and backed. He had some help from some local sponsors like Canari and Leader Bikes, but at the end of the day; Randy was the guy who made it all happen.
Less than a month ago I got an email that the San Diego velodrome was putting on a benefit race for Randy. That was when I first learned that he had cancer. It started only a few months ago when he had a melanoma removed from his nose. A couple months later he wasn't feeling well, went to the doctor and discovered that the cancer had spread to his liver. And a month or so later, he's gone.
I know that there aren't too many people who read this blog, which is kinda sad, not for me, but for Randy; because I don't see too many tributes out there to him right now. He's a guy who deserves to be recognized as one of the truly good people who made this world a better place. Randy was the sort of person there aren't near enough of on this planet. He will be missed big time.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Yes, I still ride a bike; kinda
For the past couple months, there hasn't been a lot of cycling to report on.
Partly due to lack of motivation, but mostly due to other priorities. The past 3 months or so I've been side-tracked with trying to go from 0 to 100 with Oracle's 11g version of ADF (Application Development Framework). ADF is one of the pillars of Oracle's Fusion architecture, so it's something that we're starting to develop some applications with at work.
ADF is Oracle's packaging of Java Server Pages (JSP) and Java Server Faces (JSF) into their integrated development environment, JDeveloper. For the non-technical folks, ADF is a framework for developing open-source web applications. As someone who has 10 or so years of solid software development experience in a JavaScript like scripting language (Pnuts) and a cursory knowledge of Java; I was expecting things to be pretty straight forward learning ADF. In reality it's turned out to be a lot more involved, ADF has kinda become a way of life for me.
It's not helping either that we don't have the largest workforce in our IT department these days. We have less resources than ever, but still the same amount of work to do. The bottom line in all of this is that each week I've been juggling my regular responsibilities for our manufacturing systems, developing an ADF application, and trying to learn ADF as I go. So, I almost have two jobs, an 8am to 4pm job doing my regular work, and a 5pm to 12am job doing ADF.
Not a lot of time left for cycling.
The good news is that I'm starting to become pretty proficient with ADF. My application is pretty much completed and ready for release on August 24th. Now I'll finally have some time for riding and getting back into feeling like a real human again.
Partly due to lack of motivation, but mostly due to other priorities. The past 3 months or so I've been side-tracked with trying to go from 0 to 100 with Oracle's 11g version of ADF (Application Development Framework). ADF is one of the pillars of Oracle's Fusion architecture, so it's something that we're starting to develop some applications with at work.
ADF is Oracle's packaging of Java Server Pages (JSP) and Java Server Faces (JSF) into their integrated development environment, JDeveloper. For the non-technical folks, ADF is a framework for developing open-source web applications. As someone who has 10 or so years of solid software development experience in a JavaScript like scripting language (Pnuts) and a cursory knowledge of Java; I was expecting things to be pretty straight forward learning ADF. In reality it's turned out to be a lot more involved, ADF has kinda become a way of life for me.
It's not helping either that we don't have the largest workforce in our IT department these days. We have less resources than ever, but still the same amount of work to do. The bottom line in all of this is that each week I've been juggling my regular responsibilities for our manufacturing systems, developing an ADF application, and trying to learn ADF as I go. So, I almost have two jobs, an 8am to 4pm job doing my regular work, and a 5pm to 12am job doing ADF.
Not a lot of time left for cycling.
The good news is that I'm starting to become pretty proficient with ADF. My application is pretty much completed and ready for release on August 24th. Now I'll finally have some time for riding and getting back into feeling like a real human again.
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