Happy Zen Basho Day!

Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉?, 1644 – November 28, 1694) was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku. His poetry is internationally renowned, and within Japan many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites.

Happy St. Thomas Aquinas Day!

Nature of God

Aquinas believed that the existence of God is neither obvious nor unprovable. In the Summa Theologica, he considered in great detail five reasons for the existence of God. These are widely known as the quinque viae, or the "Five Ways."

Concerning the nature of God, Aquinas felt the best approach, commonly called the via negativa, is to consider what God is not. This led him to propose five statements about the divine qualities:

1. God is simple, without composition of parts, such as body and soul, or matter and form.[60]
2. God is perfect, lacking nothing. That is, God is distinguished from other beings on account of God's complete actuality.[61]
3. God is infinite. That is, God is not finite in the ways that created beings are physically, intellectually, and emotionally limited. This infinity is to be distinguished from infinity of size and infinity of number.[62]
4. God is immutable, incapable of change on the levels of God's essence and character.[63]
5. God is one, without diversification within God's self. The unity of God is such that God's essence is the same as God's existence. In Aquinas's words, "in itself the proposition 'God exists' is necessarily true, for in it subject and predicate are the same."[64]

In this approach, he is following, among others, the Jewish philosopher Maimonides.[65]

Following St. Augustine of Hippo, Aquinas defines sin as "a word, deed, or desire, contrary to the eternal law."[66] In other words, anything that disobeys God's will is said to be a sin, and is synonymous with "evil" (privation of good, or privatio boni[67]).

I am Confused!

Sometimes I wonder what in the world we would need to do, to come together as a community of Shasta County Bicycle Enthusiasts. The opportunities I have seen squandered by petty disagreements and conflict of interest through the years, the resulting loss of promising annual events, hard to fathom. Cycling has a strange element of recreation and no-frills transportation that sometimes blurs the line between sport and support. The result of which can be confusing and fringy at times.

Stay Thirsty My Friends

Wow! What a day out at Swasey Rec. Area! Here I am (yes, my whiskers are indeed flourishing!) out at the Cyclo-Cross yesterday. I was racing in the XX-Class when suddenly, a small fox ran directly across my front wheel. It took me only a split second to realize that there was not only a race in progress, but a fox hunt as well. Thinking quickly, I leaped from my bike, grabbed the frightened animal, and carried him away from danger. I forfeited all hope of winning my race, but I am feeling remarkably refreshed. Stay thirsty my friends!

Web-Footicus Epico

Tomorrow some of our flock will be gathering, as usual at Carpet Mart, to ride out and even race, the first of a series of "RIDE ON" cyclo-cross contests. We leave (by bicycle) at 9a.m. for the event at Swasey Recreation Area. A-class race starts at 10 a.m. Come on out and share the mud, guts and glory!

Who Knew?

I spent the entire morning preparing a complicated soup called Mulligatawny and then I found this on-line. I'll bet ya no one would of noticed the difference!

Tyler Who?

We will never know, what might have been. Tyler Hamilton had it all! Show your support by wearing one of these badges to your next bicycle event. Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to his Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. His blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of newspapers. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca

For The Discerning Client

I see the word "Discerning" attached to retail shops of every kind of product known to man and I am convinced that it actually means, OVER-PRICED! I am not a man who "Demands" the finest, I am a man who finds value in size, weight, and quantity. I am looking for the retailer with a sign out front that says, "A Shop for the Indiscriminate!"

Run For The Hills

A sturdy, but small group of riders, did show up for the Giro-Dimentour/Ride to St. Alfonso's Pancake Breakfast. My god, those boys put away some grub, if only in their minds.

Dear SanFranCup

So those guys hammered off like some kind o' freight trian to HELL! I found Rob and Little Jim out by the Ribbon Bridge but Noel was gone. Since the route was to take the group out Hornbeck to the ditch trails to Shasta Dam, across the dam and then back down the Rail Trail back to the river trail, we crossed at the Ribbon and rode out, up and over to the Keswick Boat Ramp. It was there that we waited for almost an hour and then finally bailed, waiting for the group to arrive. I didn't get home until 1 p.m. after bonking badly, do to lack of food. I usually don't eat a "breakfast" when we ride early, just snack on a Clif bar after an hour of riding. I am used to getting home by eleven-ish and then eating something substantial. Web-Foot will be short and wet. Love.

Have An Epic Giro Epico!

Historically, the Italians have built some of the best steel frames. For example, Bianchi's (now actually in France) are fantastic steel frames. The expertise has now spread throughout that world, and there are lots of small companies who still know how to make a steel frame and make it well. By sticking with steel rather than going to the more expensive Titanium frames, you pay extra money, you are paying for the craftsmanship, not the material. It is the craftsmanship that gives the bike its responsiveness and structural stability. They are also be able to make them lighter. The a fore statement makes almost no sense, what-so-ever but don't worry, neither does the world of (mention this secret passage and win a free box o' tea!) fast food in this world. Can I get fries with that!?

Trouble With Tribbles

You see my son, it is all about Subject Matter. The old man calmly relighted his calabash pipe and sent billowing clouds of aromatic smoke skywards. We have lived through the grooviest of times and I can honestly say that, given the chance again, I would change nothing! Even the night I had to go to the special award ceremony so twisted on a designer cocktail, they had to wheel me in in a bomb-proof box. I have loved and been loved!

Epic Web-Foot Ride

We had an epic ride yesterday despite running afoul of an Irishman, out near Old Shasta. One of our riders was nearly forced to beat up the old man with his own shillelagh. Stupid old man! Get that dog on a leash! Three hour training rides are exactly what we're gonna need though, if we hope to do well at the upcoming, Epiuricurious-Magnamus-Cyclismo, next week. 80 miles of easily poached, classic cycling! Don't forget your forged documentation!

Greetings from The Year 2010!

Welcome to the Zen Noodle Bar! A place where the menu includes recipes for building universes. For you see, in the modified words of Dr. Carl Sagan, "If you truly wish to make noodles from scratch, you must first invent the universe." It's elementary my dear Watson!

January Coffee Contest

Be the first to not only name, but also climb and send me a photo of you on top of this Northern California landmark, drinking a cup o' Joe, and I will award you a very special trophy! P.S. If you think it's Mt. Diablo... keep climbing!

Robert Conrad Bohannon

A special "Tip o' The Hat" to our Web-foot Photographer, Mr. Bohannon. Thanks! Have you considered a Web-Foot Calendar perhaps?

Birds of a Feather

A beautiful day for a Web-Foot Ride. 30+ miles through glen, dale and brooke? Some of the best traction I have ever experienced! We bombed the Upper Ditch Trail coming back from The Flannigan Overpass. Brother Tim got to the top of a climb and told me that his rear tire was rubbing on the chain-stay. I asked if it was rubbing all the time or just when he peddled hard. Only while peddling he said. I told him that that is to be expected when KING KONG puts a thousand watts of energy into a cheap, Taiwanese bike frame!

Commodity fetishism

In Marxist theory, commodity fetishism is a state of social relations, said to arise in capitalist market based societies, in which social relationships are transformed into apparently objective relationships between commodities or money. The term is introduced in the opening chapter of Karl Marx's main work of political economy, Capital, of 1867.

As it relates to commodities specifically, commodity fetishism is the belief that value inheres in commodities instead of being added to them through labor. This is the root of Marx's critique relating to conditions surrounding fetishism—that capitalists "fetishize" commodities, believing that they contain value, and the effects of labor are misunderstood.

Marx's use of the term fetish can be interpreted as an ironic comment on the "rational", "scientific" mindset of industrial capitalist societies. In Marx's day, the word was primarily used in the study of primitive religions; Marx's "fetishism of commodities" might be seen as proposing that just such primitive belief systems exist at the heart of modern society. In most subsequent Marxist thought, commodity fetishism is defined as an illusion arising from the central role that private property plays in capitalism's social processes. It is a central component of the dominant ideology in capitalist societies.