Jim's Guts

San Diego Pictures...

So much happened in San Diego that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to write it up. I will say that being down there for 10 days made it seem like home again. So in lieu of a full travelogue how about some pictures?

Old Town San Diego


Looking north towards Scrips Pier and La Jolla from the top of Mt. Soladad


The L&T snapped this just a little early , what she missed was a semi-dyno move to hit the button at the top


The L&T flips out at SeaWorld

One of the coolest things we did during our trip was SeaWorld's Dolphin Interaction Program. After a brief classroom session you get suited up and into the pool with dolphins...

Here we are with trainer Hailey and Grace, a Pacific Bottle Nose Dolphin


A great picture of the L&T and Gracie


Splash time - Hailey is evil (she did this to us several times)


The L&T takes a walk with Tobbie


Tobbie (foreground) and Gracie say goodbye

Friday morning pick-me-up

The Presidents Of The United States Of America have a new album out! This is the first single off of it "Mixed Up SOB" (and here's the odd part) it's directed by "Weird Al"...

And now for something completely different... This dance dance ain't for everyboday... Morris Day & The Time with "Jungle Love"

Friday morning pick-me-up

For the purpose of this series I've decided that anything in the last 5 years is going to qualify for "Current" and anything older will henceforth be categorized as "Classic" (I like this "blogging" thing, you can make up your own rules!!)

I'm surprised that I like this song, but I really do, the video is pretty good too. Here's Kate Nash with "Foundations"

The Classic is from my "Blue Lake 10" disc/post. Here's a very funny video from Reel Big Fish, "Everything Sucks":

DDW Day 4…

The show has finally wrapped, and I think it was pretty successful. We have one really good lead, made some other good contacts, and enjoyed visiting with our current sponsors (including a nice wine and cheese reception one night). Putting the bike on a trainer and spinning wasn’t my idea, but it was a brilliant one, besides drawing people into booth, we were easily recognized around the show as “the bike people” which was pretty cool.

Here are the final totals from the 4 days – 1hr (9hrs 10mins) / 16.75 miles (131.51) / 90rpm / 147bpm. Obviously the totals for Day 4 were down significantly, this was due to lack of traffic, reduced show hours, and most unfortunately a very sore Achilles tendon. I’m hoping it mostly because I was on the trainer too much, but I’ll be trying to take it easy on it this weekend just to be safe.

While I wait for the booth pictures from Jay here are a couple random shots from the show (click on the image to see a full size image);

Here's a booth selling used endoscopy scopes, you know because you might want to be a colorectal surgeon but without all the overhead. The best part, though you can't see it well (my camera phone isn't that good and I was trying not to be too obvious) is the sign on the table that says "cheap scopes".

Most of the big pharmacology companies have huge booths, usually 100' square feet or bigger, and all of them have themes. Here's one with an aloha / surf theme. All of the sales folk wore aloha shirts (alas, no grass skirts), sand,beach umbrellas, and this surfboard.

And finally, what show would be complete with a costumed mascot? That's right, it's the Fleet Enema Man. I couldn't make this stuff up...

DDW Day 3…

Do you remember when you were back in school what it was like the day before school was let out for summer vacation? It's not the last day, so there's not quite that giddy feeling, but you can sort of see the last day from there? That's what the next to last day at a conference is like. Attendees have already done the exhibit hall and are just going back to follow-up on stuff or get more schwag (known by the derogatory term "schwag-whores" because all they want is the goodies, they don't care what it is or who you are, just give them the stuff), so it's mostly standing around an counting the time till the conference is over.

Of course, I'm not just standing around, I'm on the bike – Here are the updated totals – 2hrs 4mins (8hrs 10mins) / 31.01 miles (114.76) / 91rpm / 143bpm.

DDW Day 2…

DDW places all of the not-for-profit booths in "Foundation Row", which sounds like a good idea. Reality is slightly different however because we're tucked back in a far corner of the exhibit hall and consequently haven't had a lot of traffic. The event has been a great opportunity for us to meet with current and potential sponsors, which has been excellent, but the walk-up traffic has been sparse.

That's not to say that there hasn't been any excitement. At about 2pm there was a very loud bang that shook the convention center pretty good. I thought it might be someone hitting the building (we're near the loading dock), but it turns out that I was very wrong. The Hilton is directly across the street from our booth, but we were never in any danger. Fortunately no one was killed, though there were several workers seriously injured, our thoughts and prayers go out to them.

On a happier note GYGIG has some fantastic sponsors and one of our Presenting Sponsors, the great folks at UCB were kind enough to invite us to a wine and cheese reception they were having tonight. It was an excellent opportunity for us to network a little bit and get to know some of their team members a little better. It was a lot of fun (and pretty excellent wine and food too).

Pictures were taken today so as soon as we get them loaded on to a machine I'll get some posted, till then here are the updated totals – 3hrs 4mins (6hrs 6mins) / 43.71 miles (83.75) / 81rpm / 131bpm.

DDW Day 1…

Greetings from beautiful San Diego, CA (and I do mean beautiful, the weather has been fantastic these last two days). For those not aware, I'm in SD working for Get Your Guts In Gear in our booth at Digestive Disease Week ("(T)he world's largest gathering of physicians and researchers in the field of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy, and gastrointestinal surgery"). Yep, I'm a "booth babe". Actually what I am doing is spinning with my bike on a trainer (lent to us by Eric at Zumwalt's here in SD). Having the bike in the booth is a good conversation starter, and gets people that might not otherwise stop into the booth which is great. It's not the best training as I'm basically staying in zone 1 while spinning, but saddle time is saddle time, so it's hard to complain too much.

I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow, but the totals from Day 1 are – 3hrs 2mins / 40.04 miles / 84rpm / 130bpm

The evening was capped by dinner with our Ride Director (Jay), and Seattle (Karen) and Texas (Diana) Logistics coordinators at a little Mexi-Cali place called Gringo's in Pacific Beach. Diana is leaving us tomorrow afternoon, so we followed dinner with quick stops at Mission Beach and then Sunset Cliffs just so she could get some local flavor.

The L&T joins me down here in 3 days, I can't wait!! More tomorrow…

“Blue Lake 10” (part 2)…

Elvis Presley vs. JXL "A Little Less Conversation" – Before going to Las Vegas there are two movies I watch to get me in the mood (and hopefully bring some luck). The first is "Guys & Dolls", and the other is the 2001 version of "Ocean's 11". I'm not fan of Elvis, but this remix, particularly with the driving beat, it just a great song that always puts me in the Vegas mood.

Luce "Good Day" – At some point I'm going to need to finish the history of Golfapalooza (in brief, it's an annual golf trip with Mr. Jones and Timmah, this year will be the 9^th edition), but from a compilation disc that Mr. Jones made for G5 in the Okanagan, British Columbia came this song. The chorus said it all about that trip – "It's a pretty good day, I'm looking forward to tomorrow".

Oingo Boingo "Happy" – There was just too much history with this band not to have a Boingo song on the disc, the real question became which Boingo song? I must have changed this song 100 times alone. So many great songs, so I finally went with a fairly obscure one. This is from the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "Summer School", but it's a pretty good example of an Oingo Boingo song. (I really need to find that movie on DVD).

Foo Fighters "No Way Back" – Even on a deserted island you need a little progressive rock and here's a track that will get you moving.

Reel Big Fish "Everything Sucks" – I really like Ska music, I've got stuff from old (Prince Buster, Desmond Dekker) to new (RBF, Aquabats) in my collection, and tons of stuff in between, so I needed a Ska track. Being stuck on an deserted island, even if there was surf, would probably get old after a while, so this song seemed appropriate.

Now for next year's challenge – 10 Songs that Rock you. I'm already on version 4…

Friday morning pick-me-up

You may have heard or seen Ben Lee's "Catch My Disease", here's a different song but the same sensibility; "Love Me Like The World Is Ending"

For the classic here is one of my favorite INXS songs, "Don't Change"

“Blue Lake 10” (part 1)…

The idea sounds simple – If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only have 10 songs with you, what would those ten songs be? Well, if you've read this blog much you've probably figured out via the FMPMUs that I like a lot of different music, so this hasn't been as easy as it might seem. Because I like so many different types of music, I wanted to make sure I had stuff from a lot of different genres covered, but I also wanted songs that meant something to me, or reminded me of something (if you're going to be stuck on an island all alone, you want to keep your memories with you as much as you can). The lineup for this disc has probably changed over 50 times, and if I had more time before the deadline (Guys' Weekend) it would probably change 50 times more. It's a near Herculean effort to pick 10 songs from our current library of over 16,500 songs, but here's the lineup I'm going with (artists in italics are ones that I've seen perform live, which added a nice bit to this as well)…

Cake, "Arco Arena / Comfort Eagle (JCS Edit)" – This was a very late addition to the disc. On Sunday evening I went with Mr. Jones and Timmah to see Cake in concert (which I need to write a review at some point) and this is what they opened with. Great show, good song(s)

Dwight Yoakam & Buck Owens, "The Streets of Bakersfield" – Lot's of options for an "alt" Country or Country song; BR5-49, Blue Rodeo, Tift Merritt, heck even Brad Paisley is close. Then as I was looking down the list I found this great song that hits on so many levels. As I grew up my folks listened to Country, and "Hee Haw" was on every weekend, add to that Bakersfield which was the midway point between San Diego and home, then there's the great Tejano/Conjunto sound, and this became a great choice for this slot.

The Sandals, "Theme from Endless Summer" – I had to get a surf track on the disc, something to listen to as I built my surfboard (God wouldn't put you on a deserted island without surf and the stuff to make a board out of]). Besides being a great example of the 60's "Surf Sound", it always makes me smile.

Randy Newman, "I Love LA" – See the April 4^th FMPMU for details.

Frank Sinatra, "(Live) Luck Be A Lady" – I wanted to make sure I had both a song from someone like "The Chairman" on the disc and I wanted a show tune from something I'd seen as well. I get both with this track. I didn't see Frank in "Guys and Dolls" (he was in the movie version and actually plays a different character from the one that sings this song), but I love the show.

I didn't realize how long this post would be! That'll do it for the "A-side" (you younger kids ask your folks what that means). I'll post the "B-side" later. Also a programming note – The Friday Morning pick me up is going to be late this week because of travel. Look for it Friday evening instead.

Pimp my ride...

I needed new handlebar tape so I started thinking do I want red or black? Then I thought, why not both? So I got both  colors of standard Specialized tape and tried to come up with a way to do it. After several failed attempts it occurred to me that someone else must have tried to do this in the past, right? On to the Great Gazoogle...

Sure enough, there were a couple of good examples (the internets are fantastic), and while I had the right idea, I had the wrong equipment, I needed cloth handlebar tape which I was able to find online for $3.25/roll. I'm not going to lie, it took me a few attempts to get it close to what I was looking for, and while not perfectI"m pretty happy with the results. I added a couple of coats of shellac after the pictures were taken to add to the durability. You can click on the pics for a closer veiw
 
Thanks to FixedRider for the awesome how to!

Best headline in a long time…

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post hits one out of the park;

Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens

Star Command…

The new TV ads that the Zoomies are running about their new "Star Command", um excuse me, sorry, "Space Command" are disturbing on MANY levels, not the least of which is that it is so incredibly wrong. There's a great rundown of the commercial over at Wired's Danger Room, where you can also see the ad (there's no way in hell I'm putting it on my site).

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, nails it, "I am at a loss to understand the statutory authority under which the US Air Force can spend my money in propagandizing to me that they are doing a great job of spending my money. This advertising initiative is without precedent, and if it is not illegal it should be."

Friday morning pick-me-up (Updated)

Update - As Mr. Jones noted in the comments, Cake's video's are very much like the band, and the video that I think captures that best is "Love You Madly", but embedding is disabled so it wasn't one of the two yesterday. That said, even if you're not a big fan of the music, the video is worth watching as Cake's drummer and trumpeter hold an "Iron Chef" style cook off - Battle Pumpkin! - With celebrity judges Rick James, Phyllis Diller, and Jeff Smith. Go, watch, now.

A pre-concert doubleheader this morning in preparation of the arrival of a band from where I grew up - Sacramento's Cake is coming to the Paramount on Sunday night!

This is probably their best known (that's a relative term of course) song, off their 3rd album "Prolonging The Magic" here's "Never There"

The band may or may not qualify for the "classic" category, but the song is certainly does. Here's Cake's version of "I Will Survive"

A good ride…

It's easy (particularly when you see races coming up on the calendar) to get too focused on training and goals and to forget that part of the fun of cycling (or any sport) is the actual doing. I was reminded of that on Sunday when the L&T joined me for a ride. Mostly the L&T is a runner, so when she mentioned the idea of going for a ride, I was pretty stoked. We went out on that afternoon to the Burke-Gillman trail and did a nice 15 mile ride, chatting, and joking, and just riding along. It was great.

I can always put my music on and my head down and get on the trainer or go outside, but it was nice to remember that sometimes just getting on your bike and pedaling around laughing and talking is the best training there is.

"The Empire Strikes Barack"...

Yes I'm a Barack supporter, but even if I wasn't I think I would still enjoy this -

“Iron Man”…

First off, it's Iron Man. Ironman is a triathlon or triathlete, Iron Man is the comic book hero. Now that we've got that out of the way…Iron Man was one of my favorite comics (looking back, I think I always enjoyed the characters who weren't born with super powers; Iron Man, Batman Captain America, but as always I digress) so I was both excited ("X-men", "Batman Returns") and leery ("Daredevil", "Hulk") when I heard that they were making an Iron Man movie. I shouldn't have worried…

I really enjoyed "Iron Man". It's fun, fast (I never checked my watch during the movie), you don't need to know to know the comic to enjoy it. Of course if you do know the comics and the "Marvel Universe" there are several great little in jokes for you as well (including a new government agency that gave me a big laugh).

With movies like this action is puts people in the seats and on this score "Iron Man" doesn't disappoint; bad guys get what's coming to them in high tech glory, and the scenes where Stark is building and learning how to use his suit include some of the funniest bits. I don't want to say too much because I'd hate to spoil it, but if you've enjoyed the trailers I can safely say that you'll really enjoy the full suit.

While the action is fantastic, where the movie really shins is in the casting. A strong supporting cast includes Terrence Howard as "Rhodey" and a redheaded Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark's long time assistant "Pepper Potts", both huge parts of the comic book. Jeff Bridges is fantastic as the bad guy Obadiah Stane (also from the comics). But the real genius was in tapping Robert Downey Jr. to play Stark, a role he pulls off beautifully. It's funny to say this about a superhero action flick, but there are a lot of great characters in this movie and they're all played pretty much to perfect pitch.

Overall this definitely falls into the really fun popcorn movie. As I said before about this type of movie, it's not "Gandhi" or "Chariots of Fire", but if you're looking for a little escapist entertainment, this is the best I've seen this year.

Trailer watch (the movies before the movies) –

"The Hulk" – I think it's hilarious that no one mentions the Ang Lee version, it's like it never happened (and it shouldn't have). That said, the "new" one looks pretty good.
"The Dark Knight" – This is a tough one because it's Heath Ledger's last film, but he looks phenomenal as the Joker, really looking forward to this one.
Indy 4 – It's amazing that you can show just the silhouette of a guy in a fedora and everybody immediately knows who it is.

What’s good in sports…

I'll see Mr. Jones' great Central WA softball find, and raise him with a little San Diego Charger love (warning, it's liable to get a little dusty reading this one too).

This is one of those songs that I had to hear several times before I enjoyed it. I don't know why that is, but I can tell you it's happened with several songs in the past couple of months. Maybe it's a(nother) sign I'm getting old(er). Anyway here's Rouge Wave's "Lake Michigan"


And for the classic how about going way back and really picking it up with a track from Dave Edmunds - "Slipping Away"