I think...

That it is about to all come on down.

Jorg is gonna break a piece off...

According to his lawyer, not only is he gonna to out himself as a doper, but he's going to be naming names. And of course, right before the Tour takes off. I'm thinking that he's going to expose a lot. The good old cycling Omerta, well, that's going to be blown as well. How many will he take with him down the rabbit hole when he lets loose with his doping charges and such? We'll have to wait and see what he comes up with on Monday I guess.

I myself will be interested to see what he has to say. Both for himself, and what he has seen, and who he has seen doing what. This could really blow the lid off of pro cycling though, it's not as if Jorg is a bit player, like Manzano was back in the day. He was a small time fish. Jaksche is a little bigger in the grand scheme of things. He's won some big races in the past, and he has had good contact with a lot of the top guys in the sport.

I, for one, will be waiting for the press release on Monday. Hold on to your hats boys and girls, it's going to get interesting.

Who says???

Who says that you can't take good pictures with a camera phone? Well, normally I would say such things, but alas, if you take a bunch of pictures, eventually you might get a good one somewhere in time. I happened to snap a good shot with the camera phone. See below. Yes, believe it or not, I actually took it with my Razr when the fiance and I were at the beach this winter right before Christmas.

See I had a few days off from work before heading Northward for the Christmas break and all, and we decided to spend the latter part of a day in Wilmington because, well, we could. We took a drive down, walked along the deserted beach, walked around town at night with the Christmas lights on, and had a nice Thai dinner in a little restaurant we chose while walking around. Wilmington, nice place, especially in the winter when there aren't that many touristy type people around. I kind of liked it when I was there.

While we were walking down the beach though, there was a house for sale. it was just on the other side of the sand dune, directly at the back of the beach. Over the dune, and you were on the beach, it was that close. It was old. Run down. And not very nice. Checking out the sale flyer out in front of the house, I looked at the price. 1.5 million. Yes, 1.5 million for a POS house on the edge of the dune. The sale flyer said, "The value is in the location." The crazy thing is, I bet it sold, or has sold by now. Someone with more money than sense will buy it, knock it down, and build some mansion in its place, and then get mad when it gets flooded at the next sign of a hurricane. But hey, it's not my money and all.

What about that picture though? Not bad eh?

Today was a long day...

Today was a long day.

It started out with heading to work at about 5:30 in the AM.

It continued when I got a call from the SO that her stomach was still hurting her, so she was going to head to the clinic to have it checked out.

She called the clinic, they said, no, go to the emergency room.

She called me at about 9:00AM saying that she was going in. Shortly thereafter, an ER nurse calls me to say that she has been admitted, and that she wants me there. I bolt from work, and arrive at around 11 or so in the morning.

She gets a CT scan, appendix is a no go. It's got to come out. We sit in the ER until about 7:00PM, at which time, I head home to get some food, and get some things for the SO, and head back to the hospital. By the time I get back, they finally have her in a room, a real one, instead of sitting on the side of the desk in the ER with lots of noises, and people running all around the place. After being in the ER all day long though, I can say, those guys do a hard job, but they appear to be a lot less stressed in their job than I am in mine. Maybe it was the level of cussing, or I should say, lack of swearing that was going on. And there were only a couple of people yelling, and carrying on (that's another entry all in itself, stay tuned for that one). It was a long day of sitting on hard chairs and in uncomfortable positions (like the back of a Volkswagen??) for me. Anyway, I digress, this wasn't about me.

She goes in, gets it taken out, and all is well. The downside is that, she's not done with the surgery until around 1:30 (well, that's when they rolled her back into the room). I gave her a quick kiss, and headed home, where I am now, decompressing.

All is well with the SO though. Operation went well, no complications, and she'll come home tomorrow, and have a quick recovery from this whole thing. Mostly because it was done laproscopically, not by the "old" way they used to do it. It is not almost 3 in the morning, and it's time to head to the rack, and get some rest.

New video...

I made a new video this evening, because I had some footage from the Greenville, NC criterium earlier this season, and meant to do this awhile ago, and for some reason or another, forgot about it, never got around to it, or something along those lines. Check it out if you get a chance, lemme know what you think about it. Yeah, I'm an amateur here, bear with me.



There are many of your favorite riders in there. Luda-Curtis, The Old Man, Kevin Underwood, Scottie Weiss, Pat Raines, and a few others kicking around. Oh, and you'll see the local Capri Foundation Team getting shot off the back. Hey, they're young. They'll come around I'm sure (not that I'm any faster of course). There is also a clip of Ben Turits, either off the front or off the back. Which one is it? Can you guess?

I'm kind of amazed...

Holy sheep shit Batman...

Are you serious? The Creation Museum?

Now, as I was raised Catholic, I've read the Bible a few times here and there, and had to attend A LOT of cathecism classes from oh, kindergarten through to my junior year of high school (first communion, first confession, and of course confirmation), and never, never in my time in all of those classes did the crazy nuns try to actually subvert science. Maybe Catholics are a little more progressive, and have been around a little bit longer that other Christian groups, but with all of the overwhelming evidence available that refutes that the Earth is only 6000 years old people still believe in this crap? Un-freakin'-believable I say. Simply astonishing.

Now, this photo essay and write up is not my own, but I did find it out Drunkcyclist.com, and I thank the guys who went there, and suffered through this exhibit and put this post up on their website. I had heard about this place on NPR, and some other places, and laughed at it when listening to the stories, but alas, I never pictured it to be this bad. Dinosaurs with saddles. SADDLES!

I sit here writing this, feeling stunned. I especially like how at the start of the exhibit, they basically tell you to "check your brain" and just believe in the word of God and have faith. Silly people. Don't they simply realize that the Bible is not to be taken literally? I mean, it is a bunch of parables that tell stories, and instruct, but I don't believe that it was ever meant to be taken literally. Especially since we don't know what it said originally, or who actually wrote it down, you know, important things like that. I'm pretty sure that the translations over the years, got kicked around a bit, and that the words that were probably written originally in what? Aramaic and or Greek possibly had different meanings "back in the day" than they do now and all, but hey, don't let that get in the way. Use the old experiment of whispering a simple sentence into someone's ear, and then send it around a room of 20 people, and the sentence will have changed significantly before it reaches the other side of the room. Now, take a book, re-write it about a million times, leave out some gospels that don't fit into what "you" think is right, and then translate a bunch more times, and what do you get? The message has been changed over time. Then you have the old testament, the new testament, the King James Bible, and so on and so forth (Book of Mormon anyone), and you have a seriously subverted and changed document.

Does that mean that the Bible is any less valuable? For those that believe, no, I believe it doesn't de-value its worth, but I think that people should read it, understand it, and apply it (if they choose) to their lives with a certain grain of salt. It really isn't the word of God. It's the word of God written by people who thought they were prophets (but were probably hallucinating from something instead), and then changed throughout the years. Use it for guidance, but I don't think you should take it literally, because if you do, you open up yourself for some serious fucking disappointment.

Even though...

Even though I am sort of sick of cycling and doping, and the mix of the 2, I still kind of feel bad for George Hincapie. Especially in the clip seen below. Enjoy!

The Giro d'Italia has ended. Does anyone care?

I know, I know. The little bit of information that I've picked up about the Giro this year indicates that it was a good race, with some good racing, and some hard stages. There were some quality wins, by some quality riders, and let's face facts here. I think Danilo Diluca is a worthy winner of this race. But the question that I really have is this; does anyone much care right now? I might be in the minority of this path of thinking, but I couldn't care less about this race. And that's just sad to me, because in years past, I have been a HUGE fan of this race. Out of the grand tours that are contested every year, the one that takes place in Italy is my most favorite grand tour. The Tour de France is great for the mere size of it, and the Vuelta is good because you can see the passion of the Spanish riders for that race. But they Giro, it is the best. The best courses, the most passionate riders, and most of the time, it ends up being a good race.

This year though, I have no passion for it. Normally, I would be reading updates all during the stages while I'm at work. Getting the blow by blow. I would be checking out the results on a daily basis, arguing with other people on internet forums about who was doing what, what teams are looking strong, which ones are looking weak, and commenting on the various riders and tactics. This year, I've got nothing. I blame my lack of passion, and or interest in this race, and in racing in general due to the most recent doping revelations. It's been like a kick to the head, and has made me not want to follow pro bike racing that much, or at all. Sure I keep myself sort of updated, but I'm sick of it right now. More sick of the doping, and the people and riders wrapped up in it, than the racing itself. It feels like to me that everything is tainted. I have a hard time believing race results, and I have an even harder time believing riders who say, "I only doped for this one race..." or others who have said, "I only doped for a week back in 1996..." or some other nonsense such as that. Come on guys. We're not stupid over here. You're saying that you doped, but that you only did it "once" or maybe "twice". Yeah, come on. Do you see turnip truck around here anywhere? I mean, we all know that doping exists, and that it is probably rampant. It's just that we haven't had this amount of revelation in the sport. Guys coming out, who never got popped for doing anything, saying that they did it.

I know right now, I'm feeling beat down. But I'll get over it. Here's the thing. I'm not a big sports fan for the most part. I watch a game here and there, or go to a game here and there, but cycling for me, is different. It's different because I actually am a big fan of the sport and before I just wanted to believe that the riders weren't doping, and in my mind, I went with the whole, "Well, if they don't test positive, they're good to go." I can't use this assumption any longer really. I'm going to have to go the opposite way. I'm just going to assume from now on that every rider who does win, is most likely doping. Sure, there are going to be exceptions, but I think by far, and by large, the guy first across the line, probably shooting something into his veins to make him go faster. What else are we to think really? I do love the sport, but my patience is starting to wear thin.