A conversation with my buddy Eric

Here is a little collage of images from my recent skype chat with my buddy Eric in Miami.

Frantic Frog Triathlon

Yesterday I raced the Frantic Frog Triathlon in Scottsboro, AL in and had a blast. The venue was quite nice and the organizers did a great job with the whole setup. Post race food included jambalaya and pizza.
I actually felt like crap on my bike just a few days earlier, but I felt well during the race and won my age group and was second master overall. :-)

results

Stella Artois

I have been invited to check out the new Stella Artois cinematic website a few days before the official launch on September 18. I guess that means I have finally arrived in the blogosphere. :-)

Oh no

I accidentally flew across the country with 5 nukes in my baggage. I completely forgot that I had them with me and that I am not really supposed to fly with them. :-)
Is that what the military is saying here?

Put a fork in it

A little inside joke regarding an anonymous comment on my "wow, wow, wow" post.

:-)

Wow, wow, wow

Very powerful antigun video.

The hypocrisy

Another republican senator gets busted for inappropriate conduct. What strikes me funny and sad is that since the Bill Clinton/Monica Levinsky incident there have been now 5 Republican sex scandals. Senator Larry Craig from Idaho now is another fine example of the hypocritical morally correct Republican attitude. He of course denies any such activity, but funny thing is he was "fingered" in a congressional page sex scandal as far back as 1982. Check out the youtube clip.



Yikes the hypocrisy.

108 wow

108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius) was the high temperature in Chattanooga yesterday, wow. Plus as you can see on the charts below, the weather has not been much kinder the previous 6 days.

Chattanooga, TN weather in Fahrenheit



Chattanooga, TN weather in Celsius (metric)

James Dean PSA

This PSA with James Dean was done very shortly before he died in 1955 and it is almost unreal that it is about "driving careful." James Dean is in a Cowboy outfit as this PSA was done as he was in a break during the movie Giant.

A little reminder

Not that I really need a reminder for that amazing occasion. :-)

W Hotel Atlanta

Amy and I went to Atlanta friday night to celebrate our anniversary and had a very nice dinner at Nickiemoto's in midtown. We then spent the night at the W Hotel Atlanta and really found it to be a very impressive hotel in terms of design and style.

Pics won't do it justice but here are a few anyway.

One year anniversary

Today is the one year anniversary of Amy and I. She makes me very happy indeed.

Elvis

Today is the 30 year anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley and I wanted to post a few images of him as a small homage.

Elvis as most people know him.



Elvis spent 2 years in the military in Germany south of Frankfurt.



Elvis's cheat sheet for a German children's song with phonetic notes that he later recorded as the song "Wooden heart."

Oh yes

During Sunday's Sportsbarn Sprint triathlon I had the fastest bike split overall and I even won my age group. :-)

Results here.

2 races in 2 days

This weekend I'll be racing 2 triathlons, basically one each day.
So today I'll do the Mountain Lakes triathlon in Guntersville, AL and tomorrow I'll race the Sportsbarn Sprint triathlon in Chattanooga, TN.
Both races should be great, but tomorrow's race has a very special meaning in terms of my relationship with Amy. :-)

Smokefree in TN

I have been envious of people living in California mostly because of the smokefree legislation. It is finally happening here and by October 1 all work places and restaurants in Tennessee have to be smokefree.

The law was actually passed a few months ago, but very few folks seem to know it.
So here is a big and enthusiastic thumbs up to the TN Lawmakers.

Recognition feels great

:-)

Big wedding, small wedding

This weekend Amy and I attended a big wedding and while it was very nice, I am very happy that Amy and I see eye to eye in terms of us just having a very small wedding.

7 is not always lucky

This very cute little sheep was born with 7 legs in New Zealand. :-(

Simpsonized

You can get simpsonized on the Burger King microsite. Does that mean I'll want to eat there? Not really.

But I do like the Simpsons, so here is my fiancee Amy and I simpsonized.

Let us all boycott bottled water

Not only are the plastic water bottles really bad for the environment, but now we find out that we were cheated. Basically we were and are sold tap water instead of springs bottled waters. I think these companies need to feel the customers anger, and the best way to do this is to boycott all bottled waters. Plus you'll really help the environment in doing so.

Tour de France

They may be calling me over to Europe soon as very few pro cyclists might be left to race the Tour de France or any races after it. So I cleaned my bike and got a few cycling clothes ready.

Along those lines, the headline of a French news paper was the the Tour de France has died on July 25 at age 104.

Milk, sugar, more milk and even more sugar

Often referred to as a "crime against coffee", this is how I mostly drink my joe.

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. :-)