So delicious looking

These are actually not cookies or biscuits, they are biscuit and chocolate greeting cards. Read them, before you eat them. :-)

Oh so clever

Nike's Wayne Rooney soccer ad is oh so clever. Take one somewhat bullish soccer player, add an annoying ad director and some editing and you have a wicked youtube video. Not.

Go Nike.

You know you are a redneck when ...

You either participate in or watch the Summer Redneck games, or live on Suck Creek Mountain.

Holy Toledo

2 American brothers were gored by a bull during the annual Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. I would say that based on the look of the incident pic, they might not be sitting down to brag about their experiences soon.

Ouch

The Chattanooga Triathlon World championships

The weekend is almost upon us and with it the pressure of the Chattanooga World Triathlon championships, or better known as the BMW Waterfront Triathlon. The race is on Sunday morning and features a sold out field of 1200 racers. The 1 mile swim of this triathlon is in the river from the Patten Tennis Center to the Waterfront. The 26 mile bike section goes from the Waterfront via MLK to 27 and then out towards the 153 intersection before it turns back the same way back to the Waterfront. The 6.2 mile run is also an out and back past the art district and the Riverpath.

It should be hot, muggy and lots of fun. :-)

A fun game for spectators, every racer's age is written in fat magic marker on their calf.

Mountain Biking

I rode a mountain bike twice now within a 72 hour period and that might have happened for the first time in at least the last 6 years. Within the last 5 or 6 years I might have been riding on a mountain bike 5 or 6 times all together. That is pretty sad when considering that I used to live and breathe mountain bikes and actually did race as a pro mountain biker in the early to mid nineties. :-(

Thursday night I rode at Booker T state park and this morning I enjoyed the spectacular trails on Raccoon Mountain in Chattanooga and in each case that was a great experience even though my handling skills still leave quite a bit to desired.

My generation

This is a great video from the UK featuring seniors rocking the song "my generation".
It is their way to protest being pushed aside. Very nicely done.

Engaged

I got engaged on Independence Day to Amy. She is an amazing person and makes me very happy.
And yes, she did say YES.

To iPhone or not to iPhone

24 hours after the iPhone was released to the public I stopped by the local AT&T store to have a closer look myself. They had sold out of the allocated initial batch the night before but had 2 more to touch and play with. I was actually quite surprised that I easily could get my hands on one, as I expected more folks in the store prior to arriving. I played with it for about 15 minutes and at the end actually felt more comfortable with the touchscreen keyboard. The trick is to turn the iPhone sideways as it gives you a bigger keyboard. :-)

The iPhone seems very impressive indeed, but I am still not sure if I truly need one.

Dilemma, dilemma.

Wet Silvie

Look at that sad looking Silvie after she was caught outside in a very heavy rain storm.

:-(

The gangsta rant

I have really no idea who the 2 people in the pic below are, but that look is super annoying. What is it with those yuppie west coast boys trying to look and act like gangstas? Let me just tell you, those oversized baseball caps make you just look like an idiot with a tiny head and even smaller brain.
And look at all those tattoos, wow I am scared now. :-)

A very inconvenient truth

Last night we finally watched "an inconvenient truth" after having it ordered from Netflix more than 3 months ago. There never seemed a convenient moment to watch what we knew would be a very disturbing documentary, and thus we pushed it back and back.
I am glad that we finally watched it and would recommend for other people to do the same. Hopefully some of the politicians in charge will also look at this information a bit closer and take it serious.

Check out www.climatecrisis.net for more details.

Amazing Amnesty International spot

Wow.

New Saturday night concert series

The new Saturday night concert series in Chattanooga starts tonight and I will go to check it out. Maybe you all should do the same.

It is a metric world

Well, let me rephrase it. The world almost completely utilizes a metric system, other than those red countries on the map. Wow

:-)


via: core77

10 months, YES

It has been 10 months since our first date and I feel so happy and lucky.

Reunited

This weekend I got reunited with my friends Peter and Eric. Eric now lives in Miami, and Peter just moved back to Chattanooga from Maryland.

Playboy gets a social conscience?

Are the folks at Playboy getting a social conscience? Or is this fighting fire with fire?

Getting ready for the Tour de Georgia

A friend sent me this pic recently of me and Steve Carpenter pre-riding a stage of the 2006 Tour de Georgia with Trent Wilson and Jeff Hopkins of team Jittery Joe's.

The crossing 4th Street dilemma

Every time when I have to cross 4th street either on Market or Broad Street in Chattanooga, I wonder what the person in charge was thinking. I am physically quite fit and walk at a good clip, but it is virtually impossible for me to even get across halfway (barely 2 lanes out of 4) when the pedestrian "walk" light turns to red again. That means the average overweight person will barely get across 1 out of the 4 lanes.

Who is in charge of those traffic lights? Or more importantly, has that person ever tried to cross the 4th Street Autobahn there?

My 15 seconds of fame on admashup.com

I did a bit of photoshop work recently on an ad that I found on the internet and sent it in to admashup.com reworked. Check it out.

Helloooo

Environmentally friendly tooth brushes

I just received my 4 environmentally friendly recycline tooth brushes I ordered a few days ago. The company is very much in touch with the environment and the handles of these tooth brushes are made from 100% recycled plastics. They also have a partnership with Stonyfield Farm along those lines. It feels good to support an environmentally friendly cause while brushing teeth. :-)

What music?

This is an interesting MTV commercial for "Save the music." What music is MTV talking about? Do they have any music on MTV?

White Trash the bounty hunter

Is DOG just a strange abbreviation for White Trash? DOG aka White Trash, the bounty hunter. Why A&E has a show on him is beyond me.

Be brave, not beige

Pretty funny IKEA microsite called Be brave, not beige.

Gulfcoast Triathlon 007

Last weekend I went with Amy to Panama City to race Gulfcoast Triathlon. We got there relatively early on Thursday and were able to relax before my race. This was actually the first time that Amy and I went to a race together and only one of us raced. Amy was a very good sport though playing support crew for me. :-)
For race day I had actually set 2 goals, an official race goal of going sub 5:15 and a personal race goal to go sub 5 hours. In the end I finished in 5:12:31 after a solid 1.2 mile swim, a very fast 56 mile bike and a very long 2:09 half marathon.

The bike section was great with a 2:22:07 split despite riding on a rear flat for the last 5 miles





Early in the run, all is well. :-)

Another MINI weekend on the Dragon

Just spend another weekend with tons and tons of MINI Coopers at the Dragon Tail (318 curves in 11 miles). It certainly was fun and the area around Fontana, NC is very beautiful.

My MINI Cooper S at the base of Fontana Dam



MINI Coopers are unique with their headlights in their hoods




A nice video of the light show on midnight

Amy Winehouse rocks

I recently found out about Amy Winehouse on NPR and got the album on I-tunes. She is absolutely amazing but I find it hard to decribe her music, so check her out yourself.

Don Imus gets his from Nike

Nike is running this ad against ignorance and it seems that they speak specifically to Don Imus.

Very nice.

Saul Raisin is back

A few days ago at the Tour de Georgia I bumped into my friend Saul Raisin. He has come a long way since his accident almost one year ago plus I also got to hear that he recently got engaged.

Congrats.

The Stendig wall calendar

I got this very artistic Stendig wall calendar as a gift and with is 48x36 size it it quite unique. It was originally designed in 1966 by Massimo Vignelli and was accepted into the Design Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York the same year. 40 years later the design still is stunning and makes a great gift for an artistic minded person or someone who loves modern furniture design.

The Stendig calendar pages can also be recycled at the end of each month by using them as funky gift wrap.

Too adorable

This is the daughter of my best friends in town and she is just too adorable.

A little guerrilla marketing

I feel a bit guilty about shameless guerrilla marketing on another viral marketing site. But the new Mentos microsite was just too inviting. It allows visitors to create art by popping Mentos mints out of the packaging. :-)

Skype it like you mean it

I have recently become a big fan of Skype and find it works very well. I use this Euro based internet phone service now mostly in place of my cell phone, as I don't want to rack up endless minutes. I think Skype will eventually allow me to drop down in plan, and save in a month what skype costs me in a year. Skype makes calling family and friends in Europe also less of an issue aswell, with a cost of about $1 for about 45 minutes of chatting.



Bell South lost their business with me about a year ago for crappy customer service and they are not getting it back anytime soon.

My new headset

I have lusted for a Bang & Olufsen headset forever and I finally have one. The aesthetics are stunning and the sound quality is amazing. Although I might really not do it justice as it is only my Skype headset. :-)

Very cool website

Onitsuka Tiger recently launched a unique site which displays a mosaic shoe made of tiny images and image links to something Japanese on the web today. By clicking on tiles, visitors are then taken to one of the 150 Japan related websites crawled by the site spider. The links are updated every hour, and compose everytime a different shoe model which changes in the color palette according to the content linked.

The top ten worst URL titles

A friend of mine sent this to me.

The top 10 unintentionally worst company URL
Everyone knows that if you are going to operate a business in today’s
world you need a domain name. It is advisable to look at the domain name selected as other see it and not just as you think it looks.:

1. A site called ‘Who Represents’ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name is ...
www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
www.powergenitalia.com

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
www.ipanywhere.com

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com

9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their
whacky website:
www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com

Spring has arrived

The house is baking in the nice spring sun



It is time to get that patio furniture oiled up



Wow, the flowers are coming out



Yes indeed, it is the spring

A fun weekend of workouts

I ended up getting quite a few workouts in this weekend with a lot of time on the bike and a couple hours of running. But what stuck out most were intolerant locals.
During saturday's run a golfer threatened us "to shoot a golfball at us", and on Sunday during the ride someone thew a soda bottle at us, someone else yelled "pussy" and another person yelled "get off the road."

Nice.

Are these intolerant people allowed to vote? Well, George got elected somehow.

Aaah memories

Here is a pic of me during the 2006 Ironman in Kona, Hawaii ready to hand out Litespeed titanium salt and pepper shakers. Aaah, those were the days.

A new adventure

I am getting into a new adventure, but what might seem very scary for some, can of course also be looked at as an opportunity for something great.

Here is the logo of my new guerrilla and viral marketing company:




I'll be my own boss, wow. :-)

The Guerrilla Communication site will be ready soon.

Bike racing in Belgium

This weekend I was supporting our DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed team at the famous Het Volk bike race and it was an amazing experience. The fans following the sport are very enthusiastic and know quite a bit about the sport and the riders. The weather wasn't so great, but lots of fans turned out anyway to cheer on the riders. The pic below shows me at the Eikenberg waiting for the peloton to arrive and meanwhile enjoying a Belgian bratwurst for lunch. :-)

Gent is stunning

I have been very busy with a business trip the last 10 days and was thus not able to blog that much. But I got to see and experience all kinds of interesting places and foods. One place that really stuck out is Gent, it is a very attractive town.

Those crazy Germans

The float below was seen during a Rosenmontag carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany. Who is getting spanked here? :-)




The most traditional carnival (Fasnet) though is in the Southwest of Germany where I grew up. My favorite one and most likely the one with the most tradition is in Rottweil, Germany where my dad grew up.

Here are a few impressions of masks and costumes of the big Rosenmontag 8am parade in Rottweil:

Big Daddy

Today I ran the Big Daddy trail on Lookout Mountain and I consider it one of the best trail runs in the Chattanooga area and quite possibly one of the toughest ones. Depending on where you start it is anywhere from 11 to 13 miles and you pretty much have to be a local to find it.
Today's cool temps were nice but the partially frozen ground with a very thin layer of snow made it a bit treacherous at times. Today was also one of the first times that I ran it by myself, usually I try to run with at least one other person.
Now it is time for a nap.

I like Savannah, GA

I went to Savannah, GA for the weekend and from what I have seen it seems very cool. The Waterfront is great and there are all kinds of unique restaurants and stores.

Here are a few impressions:

Who owns the mailbox?

I paid for my mailbox and thus it should be up to me to decide who can put mail in it. But it is apparently against the law for UPS, DHL or FedEx to utilize personal mailboxes, and we are not just talking packages here. If they for example missed you at your house for a delivery that can't be released without a signature, they can't leave the notice in your box. Nor can they leave a copy of a shipping slip in there. That makes no sense to me.

It is my mailbox, on my property and I should decide who gets to put their grabby hands in there, not the government.

Aqua Teen Boston bombs

Pictured here is one of the devices placed by the Aqua Teen Cartoon "terrorists". I can really appreciate that officials are taking all kinds of threats serious, but those "devices" have been apparently there for quite some time. By lunchtime officials were notified by web savy folks that these items are part of a marketing campaign and even Journalist alleded to that fact. But the city of Boston was not able to admit a judgement error and as late as 5pm still had a serious press conference.

Is it so hard to say "Oops we mad a mistake."