Seems To Me, It's Heredity

January Riding

Frozen mud in shaded sections, slop ball muck in the bright sunshine. Brake pad and chain maintenance after every ride. Clifbars hard to eat, too cold. Water from bottle, instant ice cream headache. Too many clothes, not enough clothes. Soaked by rain, wetsuit mentality. Glasses too dark, glasses to light, fogging up while climbing. Don't miss it, 'cause it won't last!

Who are the "Real Webfoots?"

The nickname for Oregon's first sports teams was "Webfoots," coined by longtime Oregonian sports editor L. H. Gregory. The name originated from a group of fishermen from the coast of Massachusetts whose descendants settled in Oregon's Willamette Valley. When the University of Oregon was founded in 1876, Webfoots was the natural choice for the school's nickname, because of Oregon's reputation for wet weather.

The Emerging Fate Of The Neandertals

"When you look at all of the well dated and diagnostic early modern European fossils, there is a persistent presence of anatomical features that were present among the Neandertals but absent from the earlier African modern humans," Trinkaus said. "Early modern Europeans reflect both their predominant African early modern human ancestry and a substantial degree of admixture between those early modern humans and the indigenous Neandertals."

This analysis, along with a number of considerations of human genetics, argues that the fate of the Neandertals was to be absorbed into modern human groups. Just as importantly, it also says that the behavioral difference between the groups were small. They saw each other as social equals.

Ill-Conceived

2 years at Shasta College and 15 Units short of an AA, my Grandpa asked if I would like to move back to L.A. to finish up and then move on to a Bachelors degree, Master's and Graduate work at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, 6 blocks from my childhood home. It only took about 3 months to flush my Charlatan ass out as the no-good, free-loading, pothead I really was. Looking back I have no real regrets. After all, that's where I was first able to get some really good, pure LSD and move on to my real life's work as a weather maker.

Mastodon - "Sleeping Giant" (Official Video)

This one goes out my friend SanFranCup!

Hobro Not Hobo

Happy Holidays 2010

Warmest wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season to you and your’n! Please allow me to quickly brief y’alls as to the nature of this year’s Christmas letter. As many of you know, I have been trying (for years now) to construct a mighty literary edifice, one that will finally announce to the world the undeniable genius and skill, the ultimate embodiment of the craft, the pure unadulterated horse-sense of... me! Unfortunately, this year’s attempt contains no perceptible improvement over my previous years’ offerings. In fact, it might be even worse. I am sorry to say that, at only two stories off the ground, it was red-flagged and shut down by the journalism foremen, citing a lack of structural integrity at even the most fundamental levels. A review of the blueprints resulted in much eye-rolling, shaking of heads and general moaning and groaning. The consensus is this: my designs are so ill-conceived that it is almost as if I have no formal literary foundation whatsoever from which to draw upon and that even at only two stories high, my eloquent vision is naught but a house of cards. Now, with time running out, the thought of a complete re-build is out of the question. And so it is with darting eyes and a weaselly little half-smile that I give you perhaps one of the most ludicrous stories ever written. I apologize for ruining many a family’s cherished fireside tradition--the reading aloud of my Christmas Chronicle. It is, alas, impossible.
At this time, I am also sorry to announce that since I simply cannot foresee any way that these shoddy, jerry-built offerings will make any marked improvement in the future, I am considering an early retirement from all written story-telling. Instead, I hope to pursue my lifelong dream of ventriloquism. That way, at least, the lunacy of my dialogues can be blamed on the freakin’ puppet. I also hope to grow some organic oats someday.

Big Numbers

Think of it this way. Forty thousand years is nine hundred and sixty thousand years short of one million. The Royal Order of Orange Toad is  going on a pilgrimage to "the East" in search of the "ultimate Truth"

Preparing For The Apocalypse

Headgear
Baseball Cap or other Sun Hat. One with a good visor to shade the
nose and eyes. Include a bandanna to shade the neck.
Wool or pile ski hat. Make sure ears are covered.
Balaclava (1) Heavy weight, (1) Lightweight.
Suggested: North Face. Heavyweight must fit over lightweight.
Neoprene face mask. Optional
Head lamp (Plenty of extra bulbs & batteries).
Suggested: Petzl Zoom or Artic.
2 Pairs of Glacier glasses. 100% UV, high quality optical lenses
designed for mountain use, must have full side covers. We highly recommend a
removable nose guard. Suggested: Bolle, RayBan, Julbo Round "Arc". If you
wear contact lenses we recommend packing a spare pair of glasses-it is a
good idea to have these with "photo-gray" or equivalent light-sensitive
material so they can double as emergency sunglasses. If you wear glasses we
recommend prescription glacier glasses (dark gray or green). No more than
6% light transmission.
Ski Goggles, 1 pair. 100% UV & IR. Bolle's Chrono work well.
Climbers with glasses try X-700, they fit over glasses.

Cycling

EPILOGUE

Ride your bicycles!

Keep It Simple

Not this.












This!

Windmills my ASS!

Sancho Panza was, of course, the prototypical sidekick, who traveled around at the side of Don Quixote in Miguel de Cervantes’ historic novel of the same name. Sancho was overweight and dim, riding atop a donkey, yet lovable for his unshakable loyalty to his master, Quixote. Lately, I've been realizing my foolishness in matters academic and would like to retract much of what has been stated of late, here on my tiny blog. Basically, I am trying to set aside many of these preconceived ideas and just move on. Will someone please get word to don Juan that, HE IS FIRED!

Such Fragile Threads

Bildad discourses well of hypocrites and evil-doers, and the fatal end of all their hopes and joys. He proves this truth of the destruction of the hopes and joys of hypocrites, by an appeal to former times. Bildad refers to the testimony of the ancients. Those teach best that utter words out of their heart, that speak from an experience of spiritual and divine things. A rush growing in fenny ground, looking very green, but withering in dry weather, represents the hypocrite's profession, which is maintained only in times of prosperity. The spider's web, spun with great skill, but easily swept away, represents a man's pretensions to religion when without the grace of God in his heart. A formal professor flatters himself in his own eyes, doubts not of his salvation, is secure, and cheats the world with his vain confidences. The flourishing of the tree, planted in the garden, striking root to the rock, yet after a time cut down and thrown aside, represents wicked men, when most firmly established, suddenly thrown down and forgotten. This doctrine of the vanity of a hypocrite's confidence, or the prosperity of a wicked man, is sound; but it was not applicable to the case of Job, if confined to the present world.

Columbus Day Dining

A whirlwind tour of the west coast this last 3 days as we swept up the Tour of California course, looking for my talisman. In antiquity and the Middle Ages, most Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Orient believed in the protective and healing power of amulets or blessed objects. Talismans used by these peoples can be broken down into three main categories. The first are the types carried or worn on the body. The second version of a talisman is one which is hung upon or above the bed of an infirm person. The third is attached to an individual's bicycle, usually in the form of a medal commemorating a saint. And now you know, the rest of the story!

Open The Pod Bay Door Hal

1. persistent and pervasive feelings of tension and apprehension;
2. belief that one is socially inept, personally unappealing, or inferior to others;
3. excessive preoccupation with being criticized or rejected in social situations;
4. unwillingness to become involved with people unless certain of being liked;
5. restrictions in lifestyle because of need to have physical security;
6. avoidance of social or occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal contact because of fear of criticism, disapproval, or rejection.
Associated features may include hypersensitivity to rejection and criticism. Name that Toon!

WebFoot Potluck

In a tradition of keepin' it new and fresh, we the members of the Seely's Cyclery Collective are swithin' things up a bit this Fall. Instead of a, "So-Last-Year's" bicycle swap, we're having a Potluck Lunch! Noon-??? Sunday October 24, Carpet Mart, California. Drop in for details or just drop in. P.S. You may shake your Groove Thang, yeah!

"Chain Lightning"

Energy is contagious
Enthusiasm spreads
Tides respond to lunar gravitation
Everything turns in synchronous relation
Laughter is infectious
Excitement goes to my head
Winds are stirred by planets in rotation
Sparks ignite and spread new information
Respond, vibrate, feed back, resonate
Sun dogs fire on the horizon
Meteor rain stars across the night
This moment may be brief
But it can be so bright
Hope is epidemic
Optimism spreads
Bitterness breeds irritation
Ignorance breeds imitation

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

I picked up an old hippy yesterday hitchhiking down the old highway to Anderson. He jumped in the bus and then immediately went into his 40 year long running diatribe. "America says that people work only for money. But check it out: those who don’t have money work the hardest, and those who have money take very long lunch hours.
When I was born I had food on my table and a roof over my head. Most babies born in the world face hunger and cold. What is the difference between them and me?
Every well-off white American better ask himself that question or he will never understand why people hate America.
The enemy is this dollar bill right here in my hand.
Now if I get a match, I’ll show you what I think of it.
This burning gets some political radicals very uptight. I don’t know exactly why. They burn a lot of money putting out leaflets nobody reads." Wow! That guy was real different.