Shelley and I went to see Jack Johnson play in Sacramento last night.
I was suprised to see the number of people who turned out -- parking was a complete nightmare. However, other than that and the chilly night, the concert was quite good.
Someone will probably post the concert recording here in a few days.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Friday, August 19, 2005
Races 2 & 3: PCRS Flash 1 & Northstar XC Finale
Got in a busy week of mountian bike racing this week with the start of the Prairie City Race Series starting and the finish of the Northstar XC series.
I started Wednesday over in the OHV in Prairie City (just down the road from me on the other side of US-50) to do the PCRS races. They put on a damn fun race -- they use the motocross course full of bermed turns, steep decents/ascents, drop offs and 2' whoops through the 3 miles course. With the race being just two laps for begineers, this is a pretty full on race from the get go. I raced begineer again (they divided it into 35- and 36+ which rocked). Although I endo'd on one of the bermed turns (a mean 4ft high, 270 degree berm) and laid my bike down on a descent, I won my age bracket and came in second overall in the begineer class. I'm the person in the back with the long sleeve jersey in the picture.
Things didn't fair as well for the Northstar at Tahoe series finale. They shortened the course length from 4.5 miles to 3 miles but added a second lap for our class. After racing the night before, I was spent and the extra lap of climbing didn't help. I limped into 7th place in my class which dropped me to 10th place on the final series point list. I'll have to start earlier next year to be competitive in this series.
I started Wednesday over in the OHV in Prairie City (just down the road from me on the other side of US-50) to do the PCRS races. They put on a damn fun race -- they use the motocross course full of bermed turns, steep decents/ascents, drop offs and 2' whoops through the 3 miles course. With the race being just two laps for begineers, this is a pretty full on race from the get go. I raced begineer again (they divided it into 35- and 36+ which rocked). Although I endo'd on one of the bermed turns (a mean 4ft high, 270 degree berm) and laid my bike down on a descent, I won my age bracket and came in second overall in the begineer class. I'm the person in the back with the long sleeve jersey in the picture.
Things didn't fair as well for the Northstar at Tahoe series finale. They shortened the course length from 4.5 miles to 3 miles but added a second lap for our class. After racing the night before, I was spent and the extra lap of climbing didn't help. I limped into 7th place in my class which dropped me to 10th place on the final series point list. I'll have to start earlier next year to be competitive in this series.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Pre-season MNF
It's Monday Night Football time again.
While our local bar has not started their regular season festivities yet, Kelly and I thought we would get a jump on the action by taking in some pre-season on the porch.
While our local bar has not started their regular season festivities yet, Kelly and I thought we would get a jump on the action by taking in some pre-season on the porch.
Friday, August 12, 2005
Race 1: Northstar@Tahoe XC #5
After months of procrastinating, I finally got my act together and hiked up the hill to race in a ski resorts summer cross-country mountain bike series. Northstar at Tahoe is a ski resort located in near Tahoe City (north Lake Tahoe near Truckee) just over the border in Nevada. In the summertime, they open up the park as a mountain bike course, complete with gondolas to take you to the top of the mountain.
I learned some valuable lessons from my first race. Some things to remember:
I learned some valuable lessons from my first race. Some things to remember:
- Racing at 6800' bears little resemblence to biking at 1000'. Especially when you drive up 1 hour before you race.
- Repair your rear wheels before arriving late to register for your race
- Pre-ride the course -- I think my wrong turn at the finish might have cost me a minute or two.
- Elbow pads are not optional equipment. Do not find this out on a 6% downhill slope.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Rivercats Foul Ball Patio
Shelley, Kelly, Rachelle and I went to see our hometown Sacramento Rivercats take on the Albuquerque Isotopes last night. Although it was 105F yesterday, the night cooled off nicely and we were able to take in the entire game and fireworks afterwards.
Although the Rivercats lost 5 to 3, the only real lowpoints of the night were the constant rain of large cockroach- type bugs falling off the high intensity stadium lights (apparently they get to hot) and the insane amount of "body art" being displayed.
Although the Rivercats lost 5 to 3, the only real lowpoints of the night were the constant rain of large cockroach- type bugs falling off the high intensity stadium lights (apparently they get to hot) and the insane amount of "body art" being displayed.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Idiot Proof
I took this set of pictures last week, but it happens almost every day so I can't say its really old news.
The kid you see in the picture is on the outside of the Fair Oaks bridge railing (over the American River about 35 feet below). It took him ten minutes to climb over the 8 foot guard rails and "No Diving ! Danger !" signs to get there.
For the rest of the story, see these pictures over on my flickr page.
The kid you see in the picture is on the outside of the Fair Oaks bridge railing (over the American River about 35 feet below). It took him ten minutes to climb over the 8 foot guard rails and "No Diving ! Danger !" signs to get there.
For the rest of the story, see these pictures over on my flickr page.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
St. Joseph's Hill
I had to be in the South Bay (Santa Clara) yesterday afternoon, so I thought I would wait out the terrible rush hour traffic by revisiting some of my favorite Los Gatos biking trails.
I started out on the Los Gatos Creek Trail (map1,map2) in Vasona Park riding towards downtown Los Gatos and then climbed the hill towards Noviate and Saint Joseph's Hill (google map). Saint Joseph's Hill looms of Los Gatos and Lexington Reservoir County Park as a complete spirit crushing bike ride. It's only 3 1/2 miles long but covers about 800 - 1000 ft of vertical (PDF map). While the climb sucked (30 minutes of steep grade rocky trails), my bike really excelled on the downhill (7 sweet minutes).
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, but it was nice to fuel up on High Tech Burritos and see my old neighborhoods after the big climb.
You can see a few other photos from the ride over at my Flickr page.
I started out on the Los Gatos Creek Trail (map1,map2) in Vasona Park riding towards downtown Los Gatos and then climbed the hill towards Noviate and Saint Joseph's Hill (google map). Saint Joseph's Hill looms of Los Gatos and Lexington Reservoir County Park as a complete spirit crushing bike ride. It's only 3 1/2 miles long but covers about 800 - 1000 ft of vertical (PDF map). While the climb sucked (30 minutes of steep grade rocky trails), my bike really excelled on the downhill (7 sweet minutes).
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, but it was nice to fuel up on High Tech Burritos and see my old neighborhoods after the big climb.
You can see a few other photos from the ride over at my Flickr page.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Server Closet
Just after Brian left this morning, I figured that I need to clean out my den. A week of Brian squalor piled atop of a year of my uncleaniness might bring sanctions from the local health department. (The rest of this is technical/geeky and can be skipped)
I am on a big "silent computing" kick lately, so I've been investigating ways to move my Shuttle (small but loudish) out of my den -- leaving just my Sun Ray (no fan) and Mac Mini (external power supply so very quiet/small fan). I have a closet to move them into (I use the server as a Tarantella/Solaris server), but didn't have anyway to get network access to them (Solaris -- my Unix -- doesn't support many of the proprietary 802.11G cards avaialble).
However, Apple saved the day. I have a Apple Airport Express extending my wireless network to the porch and I found out that it also functioned as a Ethernet <-> Wireless bridge. Sweet. I moved my Shuttle server into the closet, plugged it into my Airport Express and I am now computing in blissful silence.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
In-N-Out
It looks as if Folsom, CA is not going to get an In-N-Out Burger location like we thought.
This leaves me to driving up to Placerville for my double double protein-style fixes.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Sirius and Satellite
While Kelly and Rachelle were out touring pig farms in Northern Iowa, they let me test out Rachelle's Sirius tuner and boombox. While my results were somewhat mixed, I can see how this will be quite popular with some people.
Sirius provides digital satellite radio service with technology very similar to DirecTV television service. They compete directly with another satellite radio service called XM. With an antenna pointing to the southern skies (I think), your proprietary tuner accesses 500 or so channels of digital sound. The sound quality is great, at least as good as my MP3 collection, maybe better. And like my iPod, the Sirius receiver announces song on its display as the song plays.
Just like on DirecTV's 500 channels, inevitably you gravitate to only a handful of choices. I spent my entire week listening to Alt Nation, which is a lot like the old MTV 120 Minutes (if they still broadcasted it ?) and Faction, which is kinda punk. This is of course different from First Wave, which appears to spin tunes from Kelly's iPod collection.
While the technology and music are cool, there are several drawbacks to the system. First and foremost, a view of the southern skies can sometimes be hard to come by. Like in my living room. Or my den. Or anywhere indoors. Secondly, someone else is still programming your music. Although the channels are much closer to the narrowcasting than broadcasting, you still get the repetition -- I heard Oasis' Layla four times in the past two days. Finally, I am not sure how many more $10/month services I want. Tivo, DirecTV, DSL, Mobilephone, etc start to add up after a while.
Overall, this is another entry into the increasingly crowded "music by subscription" market. This offering is slightly different, in that it includes live entertainment like sporting events, but fundamental similar to Rhapsody or Napster. Pay your money and get all you can listen to music for the month, cancel and you have nothing. I think I am still in the traditional "buy my music" / iTunes camp.
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