Real Tallent...

That must hurt her hands...
Very useful skill...



These people have what it takes to make it to the top of my Dumbass of the week posting...


What is your opinion?

A Modern Parable...

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company( Ford )decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decidedto investigatethe reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had eight people steering and one person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing. Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to four steering supervisors, three area steering superintendents and one assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the one person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower.

There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India .

Sadly, The End. Sad, but oh so true!

Here's something else to thinkabout: Ford hasspent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages. Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US .

The last quarter's results: Toyota makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses. Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

IF THIS WASN'T SO SAD IT MIGHT BE FUNNY !!!!

Thanks to LCDC Mike Sieverson for this little story.

What is your opinion?

Today’s Corporate World…

It appears that in today’s corporate world that there is not more stability in friends, and family, or community. In today’s market where the little fish get eaten up by the big fish and then everything has to be restructured, one looses the idea of community. With corporate acquisitions that occur yearly, one cannot even begin to think that a city or town can be called home. The big companies want to give their employees the perception that where they live for practical purposes is “home" even if it is a fleeting notion at best.

When a company moves from one town to another there are all types of repercussions that happen. When I lived in Indiana, the company I worked for relocated me from Texas to Merryville. They came to where I was living and packed all of my belongings and placed them on a big truck and shipped them to my new address. I got there about a week before my stuff got there. I was given some money to help with getting things set up, lights, water, cable, phone, and electricity and had some left over to make a savings account.

I was up there for about three months and then the economy went south (Took a down turn) several of the steel mills closed their doors and the whole area was in jeopardy as well as my new job. I was the last one hired because they could not make up their minds about me. I would have been better off if they had not made a job offer in the first place and I would have been ok with that.

Anyway, I made friends up there and tried to make a life there as well. In three short months, my life was gone. I got released from all obligations from the company and was on my own. So with what money I had left, I had to pack up a few belongings and race back to Texas ahead of The Blizzard of 2000 in the Mid West. When I got home, thanks to my Grandmother, we flew back to Indiana after the snow storm and I sold a few items and moved the bare essentials back home with me. I was a little wiser for having been through that ordeal. It only prepared me for what was to come later in my life…


What is your opinion?

Vacation....

Next week…

We leave for vacation to Florida. I am eagerly awaiting this as I have never been to MGM Studios. I want to go and see this at night. Illuminations: Reflections of Earth as it looks wonderful and this. The Wishes™ Nighttime Spectacular. I have always loved fireworks! Pleasure Island sounds like fun for us adults!!

All in all, it looks like we are going to have a very fun and good time!! I have been to Disney in Florida before with my High School Band (jasper) and also with my family 2 other times. This will be my first time with my family. What comes around goes around as the saying goes.

Spaceship Earth Pavilion is one of my favorite rides at Epcot in Disney. I remember it well as a child. Step into the world-renowned geosphere to witness milestones in communications vital to man's survival. Ride Spaceship Earth to the further reaches of the solar system, and then visits a post-show to see your photo on the digital branches of the Network Tree.



What is your opinion?

Pocahontas State Park Trails.

Here is the new GPS of Lake View 1&2 that i promised you today.
We rode on these trails on Sunday morning and we did 9 miles
with 970 feet of elevation chages.



This is the old data. It is off the Qalla Road entrance.
It shows the Red, Blue, and 2xRed trails.






This is a FlickR link to us to see all the pics and stuff.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmstringer/sets/72157600393338093/




What is your opinion?

Bush Gardens Rides for Big Kids...

Griffon carries riders up 205 feet, then hurtles them 90 degrees straight down at 70 mph.It is a good ride, not up to the Hype like they say.

Experience the world's tallest, most twisted inverted roller coaster. Alpengeist reaches a height of 195 feet and a speed of 67 mph. Alpine "skiers" are launched on the most chilling ride of their lives as this snowbeast twists an innocent ski lift into six staggering inversions and a 170-foot drop. I do not think that it isw still the tallest. It was a very good ride!!

at speeds approaching 50 mph. The "Wolf" rambles through natural terrain and dense forest, suddenly dropping a sheer 99 feet to nearly skim the Rhine River below. It reminded me of XLR8 at Astro World in Houston texas. Not really that fast, and it looks dated. The big drop was nice.

The pulse-quickening journey plummets passengers a total of 825 feet. Apollo's Chariot boasts nine drops, the first of which plunges passengers down 210 feet of steel track. You will experience periods of weightlessness, or "air time," as you race up and down the camelback humps at 73 mph. Very good ride!! I was surprised. Very compareable to "Super Man" at Six Flags New England in Massachusetts.

Reaching 13 stories into the air with a 114-foot drop, this "creature" offers a spine-tingling, breathtaking ride at speeds up to 60 mph. Very good roller coaster in the classic sense and a good one to start off your day.

Bush Gardens in Williamsburg Virginia.

There are some neat 4-D rides like Corkscrew Hill and Pirates there with motion and animation to make the experience better. My only gripe about the park is that there were not enough food places to eat. In the different regions they had about 1 major restaurant with several treats & sweets places. In most other parks I gone to, they have several places to eat. The lines were very long to get food. That was the only downside that I can see.
What is your opinion?

God's Will...

This has been bothering me a lot lately. People always talk about God's Will. I know from my own life and that of 12-Setep you are supposed to submit to God's Will. How do you know what that is? Me, My Wife and Daughter have been together this coming December 5 years (married) we have been together a total of 7 this summer and have known for over 20 years. We went to the same high school.

Over the last 5 years, we have moved 5 times to different stated for her company. We always hoped that the "next" move would be the one that would bring us happiness. We moved from Houston to Austin, Then to Highlands Ranch Colorado. From there we moved to Gardner Massachusetts; she worked in Boston. From then we moved to Midlothian Virginia. We made up our minds to stay here until our daughter got out of high school. Now, with things so up in the air, we are perplexed.

We try to go to church and to follow God's Will, but it is hard. When we lived in Colorado, we were members of St Andrews United Methodist Church Were really in tune I think and we loved going to the church because of the worship and the church itself. It was very wonderful but like all things, we moved to Massachusetts and it was very hard to get back into church because of the size of the church there. We so longed for St. Andrews that we, I guess, missed out on a very small church that we could have helped bring life back into had we just given it a chance. For you see, St. Andrews set the bar very high.

Well, Midlothian in my mind has some very good churches. Some would I dare say compare to St. Andrew in my mind. They have lots to offer and have a very progressive message in tune with today. It has been hard for my wife as they are not St. Andrews. I hold no fault against her for this as I miss it also, but we have to move on.

When she accepted her promotions, was that the Will of God? We made friends in Colorado and in Massachusetts but we left them. Our lives a little better for knowing them and theirs also for knowing us. My brother whom I talk about a lot is a Man of God, a Preacher in the Methodist Church. Even though he is 10 years younger then me, I rely on his wisdom to help guide me and he is more than ready and willing to be up to the challenge when I ask. I know that I do not pray as often as I should and as for what His Will is and what we should do. It is a hard practice to get into and when you do it, if you stop it is really easy to no continue.

Are all of these trials and tribulations part of God's Will for us? And if so, what is His Will to be for us on the next leg of our journey? How do some of you deal with this subject? Or do you even think about it.


What is your opinion?

A few more pics...

Me and Jeff all banged up!!

Mark on the trail!!

Mark in the creek crossing!

What is your opinion?

Fathers Day...

I just wanted to wish all the fathers around the world, Have a Happy Fathers Day!!



What is your opinion?

Our Ride This Morning...

So this morning we went on a bike ride to Pocahontas Park. It was Jeff, Mark and I. We had to do an early ride as I have to work tonight. We got there around 8.15am and proceeded to go to the trail. We went down some nice trails that lead us to the main trailhead. On the way, I was going fast down one of the hills and I tried to scratch my nose. Boy was that a mistake!!

My wheel turned to the left and I kept on flying down the hill. It was almost like I was sliding into home plate!! My right forearm is all scratched and my left knee is all torn up. I was bleeding and had a trail of blood all the way to my sock. The bad part about all of this is that I was not trying to do an obstacle! It was just a wide open road. I am sore, but my pride was hurt more than anything. We decided to continue with the ride as planed. I was not going to let a wreck keep me from getting my exercise and fun for the day.

Mark and Jeff both now have Clip-Ins and Egg Beaters for their bikes; so needless to say, I was not the only one that had a few accidents today. Mark was the next one and Jeff followed in wrecking. Jeff’s knee was as bad as mine. Mark did not get bumped as bad as we did, but he did take a few spills.



That is a pic of me going in a little creek that runs across the trail that we were riding today. We rode on Lake View 1 and 2. Mark and I did these before and we did about 12 miles but we got lost and had to ride over the dirt roads in the park to get back. We were a bit smarter this morning and found our way to the car.

All in all, it was a very good morning ride with us doing 9 miles and 970 feet of elevation changes. We did the ride in a total of about 2.5 hours.


This pic is me going over what would be considered a normal obstacle in the parks that we ride in. These are present in all of the parks that we ride. Some of them a re bigger than this, but most are about this size. I will post on Tuesday all the GPS data of these new trails that we rode today.



I went home and cleaned up, doctored myself and then got some much needed rest!

What is your opinion?

Today...

I took the night off and we are away to Bush Gardens!!!



What is your opinion?

Another Recovery Memory...

It was back in 2002 when I first tried to get clean. I remember going to several NA meetings and I thought that I liked them. So after a month or so, I asked a person to be my sponsor. His name was Wes or Officer Wes as he is known.

We decided to meet on the next after at a local cafe to discuss The 12 Steps and how I was going to go threw them with him. He gave me his number and told me that if I needed to talk or call him in a weak moment for me to do so no matter what time it was. That is what a sponsor is supposed to do for your information.

I thought that I was doing well and he and I proceeded to work me through the first 3 steps and we would meet regularly at his house or at the cafe. Then came that dreadful day after I had 3 months of sobriety that I had the dreaded "R" word...Relapse! For you see, that can happen if you do not totally put you whole body into the program of recovery. It happened because I still thought that I could drink and get away with it. I could not. For I thought that even though I new alcohol was not my problem, I could still drink like I was ok. For just placing one altering chemical into my body restarted the mental, physical craving that happened to me when I would ingest and use cocaine. Even though alcohol is legal, it is still a drug, plain and simple.

So if you are out there in Recovery land, do not delude yourself by think that you can drink but no do drugs. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN.

Also so as to not piss anyone off about the anonymity issue, I called him to ask if I could use his name in this blog post. He was most grateful to let me do it...


What is your opinion?

Some more FREE Music...

Several months ago i posted about an artist named VXC or if you will VXCasualty. One in the same. He has a few more new tunes for your download. His record lable is called LSDXM.

"Vxcasualty is an experimental trance project with psychedelic and ambient elements produced using Propellerhead Software's Reason" - Last.FM

New Music:
Mothra Organica is a directory with new music.
vxc&dysphor - untitl..> is also new.
http://vxc.lsdxm.com/demonology_EP_2007/
Index of /02-07/earthbound direct link to directory.

These are direct links to these tracks.
http://vxc.lsdxm.com/gateway_drug.mp3
http://vxc.lsdxm.com/brain%20floss.mp3
vxc - now, then!.mp3
vxc - friable.mp3

These are his old links:
vxc - 5-meo-wtf/
vxc - shadowcaster/
vxc - singles/
vxc - synapse/

What is your opinion?

Blog on the net...

It always seams that I am trying to generate new traffic for my Blog by singing up on new free services. You can see all the badges that I have on the left side of my blog. It is a personal thing that I like to do. I could go the route of Ad-sense from Google, but I do not want to sell out and place advertising on my site. I could also do the pay-per-click but that is not what I am about. I have had over 4300 hits since I started actively promoting my site sometimes last December. Not bad figures if you ask me. The picture is a map of where people all over the world read my blog. I just think that it is neat when someone from India leaves me a comment on my blog. The internet is a wonderful tool that all should be able to enjoy!!

I do not under any circumstances condon censorship in any way, shape, or form!!

The internet should be kept free and clear off any and all censorship because no single country owns the internet. I know that there is a lot of that going on around the world like in China where FlickR is being banned from viewing because some pics got on there of the Tiananmen Square student demonstrations of 1989 and the China government has blocked the site.

This is much like the on going issue here in the USA about Net Neutrality. I for one have signed up to help save the internet and stop censorship of the internet. If you value reading this blog in a different country, you should also want to do so as it might get banned. They could ban the whole www.blogger.com service for all we know. That would piss off a bunch of people including me. Lets all just play nice together and enjoy the internet like it is supposed to be used for, free and with no censorship.

What is your opinion?

Stress Level...

With things like they are today, many people including myself are very stressed out. How do you deal with stress? Do you meditate, or walk, jog, or workout? I for one like to go mountain biking. It is great exercise and also a great way to blow off steam! There is nothing like going riding with my friends and doing about 8-10 miles in the great parks that are around the Richmond Metroplex.

I can tell when I get too stressed out. I get very edgy and snap at people for no or little reason. Little things piss me off and I do not like that. I am a high energy person to begin with, so being on the high side of that level is almost too much to deal with. With so much uncertainty in our lives, minor things tend to be as they say the straw that broke the camels back.

I think that when we focus or obsess on small issues that it tends to make them bigger than they actually are. I know that my wife often tells me to no obsess about an issue and it will not be that big. I understand what she is saying, but it is sometimes hard to do that.

At my job, we are contractors, actually we are sub-contractors. We have had 4 positions open up in the Automation department and we did interviews. I worried about them for a few weeks before they happened. I was able to land a job; the benefits are great and the total package would be much better than what I currently have. SO I had the interview over a week ago and now I am worrying about who is going to get the positions...

I hope that the stress level will subside next week when we find out who get the positions. So it would seam that life has many actions for me to stress over. It just depends which one I have to concentrate on at that moment. Tell me how do you deal with stress…

What is your opinion?

Ubuntu Linux...

I have been test out this install of Linux for the last few days. It is called Ubuntu. So far, i am really impressed with this as i have messed with SUSE linux before, but did not like it. I run an all Windows network and as such have had no need to test this before. I just thought that it would be neat to try.

The first thing that impressed me was how easy it was to install!! It took only 15 minutes to do a complete install and if there were other applications that you want, just do an update and you will get them. The second thing that impressed me was the ability of Ubuntu to open up my widows network! It found both groups, the MS Home and Work Group. Secondly, it was able to open up the shared drives that i have on my network with no problem and to also xfer files from them to the Linux computer. We have a shared printer on our network. All the computers in the house can access it. So, i decided to try to add a printer to the Ubuntu box and it found the printer and installed it. I tried a test page and it worked like a charm. I guess that is why Dell is selling Laptops with Ubuntu installed on them.

The computer that i installed it on is an older computer with a 1ghz Celeron processor and 512mb ram. It has a 20gig and a 60gig set of Hard Drives in it as well. I will keep messing with this over the following months and let everyone know what i think. It is different as you have to use command line stuff alot, but also it has a wide array of software applications that are prepackaged as well. There are several different installs that you can do with it. I did the Desk Top Edition. I also found a Multimedia Package called Ubuntu Studio. I might upgrade this install, I just don't know. I will let everyone know if i do this as the desktop looks very nice.





Well all, that is it for now on my adventures in Linux land. Have a good evening...







This is a great place to go and ask questions about Ubuntu. It is galled the Ubuntu Search Engine.




What is your opinion?

US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs

I thought that was very interesting for everyone to read and look at.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a convenient way of measuring and comparing the size of national economies. Annual GDP represents the market value of all goods and services produced within a country in a year.

Put differently:
GDP = consumption + investment + government spending + (exports – imports)
Although the economies of countries like China and India are growing at an incredible rate, the US remains the nation with the highest GDP in the world – and by far: US GDP is projected to be $13,22 trillion (or $13.220 billion) in 2007, according to this source. That’s almost as much as the economies of the next four (Japan, Germany, China, UK) combined.

The creator of this map has had the interesting idea to break down that gigantic US GDP into the GDPs of individual states, and compare those to other countries’ GDP. What follows, is this slightly misleading map – misleading, because the economies both of the US states and of the countries they are compared with are not weighted for their respective populations.
Pakistan, for example, has a GDP that’s slightly higher than Israel’s – but Pakistan has a population of about 170 million, while Israel is only 7 million people strong. The US states those economies are compared with (Arkansas and Oregon, respectively) are much closer to each other in population: 2,7 million and 3,4 million.

And yet, wile a per capita GDP might give a good indication of the average wealth of citizens, a ranking of the economies on this map does serve two interesting purposes: it shows the size of US states’ economies relative to each other (California is the biggest, Wyoming the smallest), and it links those sizes with foreign economies (which are therefore also ranked: Mexico’s and Russia’s economies are about equal size, Ireland’s is twice as big as New Zealand’s). Here’s a run-down of the 50 states, plus DC:

1.California, it is often said, would be the world’s sixth- or seventh-largest economy if it was a separate country. Actually, that would be the eighth, according to this map, as France (with a GDP of $2,15 trillion) is #8 on the aforementioned list.
2.Texas’ economy is significantly smaller, exactly half of California’s, as its GDP compares to that of Canada (#10, $1,08 trillion).
3.Florida also does well, with its GDP comparable to Asian tiger South Korea’s (#13 at $786 billion).
4.Illinois – Mexico (GDP #14 at $741 billion)
5.New Jersey – Russia (GDP #15 at $733 billion)
6.Ohio – Australia (GDP #16 at $645 billion)
7.New York – Brazil (GDP #17 at $621 billion)
8.Pennsylvania – Netherlands (GDP #18 at $613 billion)
9.Georgia – Switzerland (GDP #19 at $387 billion)
10.North Carolina – Sweden (GDP #20 at $371 billion)
11.Massachusetts – Belgium (GDP #21 at $368 billion)
12.Washington – Turkey (GDP #22 at $358 billion)
13.Virginia – Austria (GDP #24 at $309 billion)
14.Tennessee – Saudi Arabia (GDP #25 at $286 billion)
15.Missouri – Poland (GDP #26 at $265 billion)
16.Louisiana – Indonesia (GDP #27 at $264 billion)
17.Minnesota – Norway (GDP #28 at $262 billion)
18.Indiana – Denmark (GDP #29 at $256 billion)
19.Connecticut – Greece (GDP #30 at $222 billion)
20.Michigan – Argentina (GDP #31 at $210 billion)
21.Nevada – Ireland (GDP #32 at $203 billion)
22.Wisconsin – South Africa (GDP #33 at $200 billion)
23Arizona – Thailand (GDP #34 at $197 billion)
24.Colorado – Finland (GDP #35 at $196 billion)
25.Alabama – Iran (GDP #36 at $195 billion)
26.Maryland – Hong Kong (#37 at $187 billion GDP)
27.Kentucky – Portugal (GDP #38 at $177 billion)
28.Iowa – Venezuela (GDP #39 at $148 billion)
29.Kansas – Malaysia (GDP #40 at $132 billion)
30.Arkansas – Pakistan (GDP #41 at $124 billion)
31.Oregon – Israel (GDP #42 at $122 billion)
32.South Carolina – Singapore (GDP #43 at $121 billion)
33.Nebraska – Czech Republic (GDP #44 at $119 billion)
34.New Mexico – Hungary (GDP #45 at $113 billion)
35.Mississippi – Chile (GDP #48 at $100 billion)
36.DC – New Zealand (#49 at $99 billion GDP)
37.Oklahoma – Philippines (GDP #50 at $98 billion)
38.West Virginia – Algeria (GDP #51 at $92 billion)
39.Hawaii – Nigeria (GDP #53 at $83 billion)
40.Idaho – Ukraine (GDP #54 at $81 billion)
41.Delaware – Romania (#55 at $79 billion GDP)
42.Utah – Peru (GDP #56 at $76 billion)
43.New Hampshire – Bangladesh (GDP #57 at $69 billion)
44.Maine – Morocco (GDP #59 at $57 billion)
45.Rhode Island – Vietnam (GDP #61 at $48 billion)
46.South Dakota – Croatia (GDP #66 at $37 billion)
47.Montana – Tunisia (GDP #69 at $33 billion)
48.North Dakota – Ecuador (GDP #70 at $32 billion)
49.Alaska – Belarus (GDP #73 at $29 billion)
50.Vermont – Dominican Republic (GDP #81 at $20 billion)
51.Wyoming – Uzbekistan (GDP #101 at $11 billion)

This map was suggested by Morgan via strangemaps@gmail.com, and can be found here. Please note that the GDP data used for this comparison are not necessarily the same as those used in compiling the original map.

What is your opinion?

To Kill An American....

Thanks to LCDC Mike Sieverson for sending this to me.

I wanted to send this to my Blog for all to read...

Written by an Australian Dentist....and too good to
delete....


You probably missed this in the rush of news, but
there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan
had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to
anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the
following day to let everyone know what an American is.
So they would know when they found one. (Good one,
mate!!!!)


"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish,
German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American
may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian,
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian,
or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.


An American may also be a Comanche, Choctaw, Cherokee,
Osage, Bl ackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of
the many other tribes known as native Americans.


An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or
Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims
in America than in Afghanistan . The only difference
is that in America they are free to worship as each of
them chooses.


An American is also free to believe in no religion.
For that he will answer only to God, not to the
government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for
the government and for God.


An American lives in the most prosperous land in the
history of the world.


The root of that prosperity can be found in the
Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God
given right of each person to the pursuit of
happiness.


An American is generous. Americans have helped out
just about every other nation in the world in their
time of need, never asking a thing in return .


When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20
years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to
enable the people to win back their country!


As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given
more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan
.   Americans welcome the best of everything...the
best products, the best books, the best music, the
best food, the best services. But they also welcome
the least.


The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty
, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched
refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest
tossed. These in fact are the people who built America
.


Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the
morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life
for their families. It's been told that the World
Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different
countries, cultures, and first languages, including
those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler
did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and
Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the
world. But, in doing so you would just be killing
yourself.  Because Americans are not a particular
people from a particular place. They are the
embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone
who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

 

My Gary Fisher Wahoo Bike...

So after having my Wahoo for over 6 months, I really like it. It is not for the casual rider. The bike geometry is very different from the Schwinn bike I used to ride. If a person purchases a Gary Fisher bike, they really have to want to ride. The bike has a very sharp front end and as I like to say, it is in attack mode or attack stance. The front tire and fork is very sharp compared to other bikes. The forks are adjustable and I like to keep them very loose to absorb impacts better.

The gear changers are very responsive and tight. With just a little motion, the gears will change. The seat I bought (Bontranger) in conjunction with a good pair of padded shorts helps keep my butt from getting too sore on extended rides. I changed the pedals to a pair of Crank Brothers 5050 this weekend and I really love them. The Lizard Skin I bought really helped make the ride very quiet because it padded the chain from hitting the frame. There are a few more things I would like to get for my bike, but that will happen in time.


So all in all, I would say that I am very happy with my bike and that I am glad that I bought a Gary Fisher bike. I did try several other kinds of bikes; Trek and Specialized were the other two bikes I tried. They just did not feel as good to me as the Gary Fisher did.



What is your opinion?

Moutain Biking and Health Benefits...

Last year about November I went to the doctor for a physical. He did all the blood work and all that stuff. My results came back good. My blood pressure is about 127/80 and my Triglycerides are about 189 which are in the good range. He said that I needed to loose some weight. At that time, I was about 185-190 and I am 5'8'' He suggested that I ride my bike more and that it would help. I said ok. I was going to try to anyway as I like to do it.

A few weeks ago, I realized that my pants were fitting very loose. They are a 34 waste. So after noticing that, I got on the scales after I took a shower and was amazed. I weighed 172!! I got on them on Sunday night and I was 169. I am on the first belt hole and all my 34 stuff fits me very loose. So with out even trying to loose weight, I have done it. I do not diet!! I eat what I want to and also at work I walk an incredible amount because of the size of the Fab that I work in. I walk an average of 10,000 steps a shift! So you see the reason that I do not diet. I am a very finicky eater! I only like cretin things.

I would like to ride about 12-15 miles a week, but my work schedule is very demanding at this time so that is not possible. I did however ride over this weekend a total of 16 miles! Riding on a trail is not like riding on the road or surface streets. Trail riding is much more demanding because of the terrain. I am very proud of what I have accomplished with my mountain bike ridding. It is great fun and I reap some good benefits from it! Don't get me wrong, I do get sore in my legs and my lower back from riding, and I have had a few wrecks, but it is all worth it.

What is your opinion?